East Palestine derailment, fire put Holmes County into action
When the call went out through the Ohio Chief’s Emergency Response System, asking any department within Region 5 to provide mutual aid to a train derailment in East Palestine near the border of Ohio and Pennsylvania, Holmes County sent a pair of firetrucks to lend a hand.
A major train derailment in East Palestine, a town of around 5,000 people located near the border of Ohio and Pennsylvania, created a frightening scenario. The state put out calls to many fire districts to supply mutual aid.
One of those counties among the several contacted included Holmes County.
While nearly 20 cars in the 100-car train derailed, five of those cars contained a potentially explosive chemical, vinyl chloride, which created the need for additional mutual aid.
The train, which partially derailed on Friday, Feb. 3, had more than 100 cars, with about 20 of those cars carrying hazardous materials, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the incident.
While there were no reported injuries, the issues concerning the hazardous materials, which were seeping into the ground and affecting groundwater in the area, created an entirely different scenario.
To maintain the issues quickly and properly, a call went out through the Ohio Chief’s Emergency Response System, asking any department within Region 5, which includes Columbiana, Tuscarawas, Ashland, Richland, Wayne and Holmes, to provide additional aid in cleaning up the hazardous material as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Holmes County sent two response teams with the first dispatch from East Holmes Fire and EMS heading east to near the Pennsylvania border on Monday, Feb. 6 and the second unit dispatched by Killbuck Fire Department on Tuesday, Feb. 7.
The events in East Palestine included the threat of an explosion at the site of the derailed train and forced the evacuation of residents. When the incident occurred, a loud boom was reported, and a large plume of black smoke rose skyward, even as area firefighters responded to begin the process of draining vinyl chloride, the hazardous material the train was carrying. The wreck continued to burn days after the train derailed on Feb. 3 with the threat of the toxic chemicals and the threat of explosion, which could send shrapnel as far as 1 mile away.
Local East Palestine law enforcement went door to door pleading with residents who hadn’t already evacuated.
The Holmes County response teams were part of a planned control release of the hazardous materials to alleviate the risk of an uncontrolled explosion.
Both teams left in the early hours before 6 a.m. to arrive before an 8 a.m. briefing by the East Palestine leadership team in charge of the derailment response.
East Holmes dispatched firefighters Benny Miller and Loren Hershberger, who drove a tanker, which was requested, and traveled east for nearly two hours to arrive on the scene.
Both of those firefighters had a long day. According to East Holmes Fire Chief John Schlabach, the members had responded to a report of a fire at 4 a.m. in Walnut Creek, where they found someone was tearing down a house and had begun burning at some point that morning.
“We located the fire, and it was someone intentionally burning a structure, but there was nobody there, so we put the fire out,” Schlabach said. “That made for a long day for Benny and Loren. They didn’t get a lot of sleep.”
Schlabach said the Ohio Chief’s Emergency Response System was put in place for emergencies such as this one, where there is a great deal of potential harm and destruction.
“As soon as we heard the need for mutual aid, we responded,” Schlabach said. “The Ohio Chief’s Emergency Response System was put in place so major emergencies could have mutual aid. It’s nice to know that if we ever experienced anything like this in Holmes County where that type of assistance was needed that other departments would respond just like we did.”
Schlabach said both responding firefighters have full-time jobs, and as always, the department is gracious to the many area businesses that allow their employees to leave without notice to respond to emergencies.
“We’re blessed that so many of our area business owners understand the value of having a volunteer firefighting crew who need to respond to help others,” Schlabach said.
On Feb. 6 the team from Killbuck responded, with Fire Chief Scott Kashuba taking the trip. Kashuba left at 4 a.m. and arrived in time for the 6:45 a.m. briefing. He said by that day most of the hazardous material cleanup had been done, so Kashuba spent much of the day on stand-by.
“They were winding things down at that point,” Kashuba said. “It was fairly uneventful, and now they are ready to go into cleanup mode, which should take weeks.”
Kashuba said just being there and being part of the response team was inspiring.
According to Holmes County Emergency Management Agency Director Jason Troyer, the Ohio Chief’s Emergency Response System is one way for the brotherhood of firefighters to provide aid because they all understand what is at stake any time a situation like this occurs.
“The fire service is a family structure that doesn’t have any boundaries,” Troyer said. “When there’s a request like this, we all understand the needs and dangers of our brothers and sisters out there working hard. Helping each other whenever possible is the philosophy of the fire service.”
When the Ohio Chief’s Emergency Response System call goes out to fire chiefs, they respond by inquiring about the needs and respond appropriately. Troyer said one concern in responding is making sure sending a team to mutual aid doesn’t overextend the responsibilities of departments to serve their home districts and counties.
“The nice thing is that there is a plan in place when emergencies occur,” Troyer said.
Thanks to response teams like Killbuck and East Holmes that come from all over the region, the aid is there to support the effort and attack the problem quickly and professionally.