(Reuters) – A timeline of events since a Norfolk Southern Railroad-operated train derailed near East Palestine, Ohio, while carrying hazardous materials from Illinois to Pennsylvania.
Feb. 3: Derailment of a train comprising three locomotives and 150 freight cars, and subsequent fire sends plumes of smoke over East Palestine and forces the temporary evacuation of thousands of residents. Nobody is hurt.
Feb. 5: National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member Michael Graham says video footage of the accident points to possible “mechanical issues on one of the rail car axles.”
Feb. 6: Crews drain and burn off an “unstable” toxic chemical cargo from five rail cars of the train.
Feb. 8: Ohio Governor Mike DeWine says residents can return to their homes.
Feb. 10: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) notifies Norfolk Southern it may be liable for clean up under the U.S. Superfund law.
Feb. 13: The EPA’s Great Lakes regional office says it had conducted air quality tests in 291 homes in the evacuation zone and detected no vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride, two of the hazardous materials that most worried officials. It said it needed to screen another 181 homes.
Feb. 14: The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says 20 cars were carrying hazardous materials, including 10 that derailed. The NTSB says 38 cars in total left the tracks and that the ensuing fire damaged 12 more cars. The NTSB has not given any preliminary report on any possible cause of the derailment.
(Reporting by Brad Brooks and Valerie Volcovici; editing by Donna Bryson and Josie Kao)
