East Palestine, Ohio Flash Report 14 FEB 2023 13:45 PST - Controlled Burns vs Super BLEVE

If you're unfamiliar with the situation, here is a quick timeline.

On the evening of February 3, in East Palestine, Ohio, a 3,660 meter (12,000 foot) long Norfolk Southern Railroad train pulling 150 cars derailed. Fifty cars were impacted, including 20 carrying an array of hazardous chemicals, some extremely toxic and all highly flammable. An additional 10 to 20 cars carried less toxic materials, such as plastic pellets, but are also highly flammable. About two hours after the derailment and fire started, the National Transportation Safety Board Emergency Response team was notified.

On February 4, toxic runoff from the derailment was discovered in area streams, and an evacuation order was issued within 1,600 meters (1-mile) radius of the derailment site.

On February 5, with firefighters unable to extinguish or contain the fire, a recommendation was made for all 5,000 residents to evacuate the town due to the risk of an explosion.

On February 6, an emergency evacuation order was issued for all residents in a 3.2-kilometer (2-mile) radius due to the high risk of an explosion. A decision was made to do a "controlled burn" of vinyl chloride contained in five tanker cars with a capacity of approximately 16,000 gallons each. Norfolk Southern would do the "controlled release."

On February 8, Ohio government officials, Norfolk Southern Railroad, and the EPA declared "mission accomplished," and people could return home.

Why were the Norfolk Southern Railroad, NTSB, and incident commanders worried about a growing explosion risk on February 6? They were concerned that a super BLEVE would occur.

What's a BLEVE?

Boiling
Liquid
Expanding
Vapor
Explosion

Here is a video of a single railcar BLEVE. This isn't even a bad one. A super BLEVE is when five or more cars explode at the same time.

A BLEVE is caused when a sealed vessel containing a liquid is heated in a fire, and the contents start to boil, converting the liquid to gas. Matter in a gaseous state needs more room because the molecules are heated, so they are more - active - and bounce around, hitting each other. This generates heat, creating more boiling and more gas. If the heated matter has room to expand, no problem.

A funny thing happens to a liquid that turns into a gas inside a sealed vessel. It pressurizes, and under pressure, it gets hotter, accelerating the transition from liquid to vapor and creating more pressure. I learned this previously useless information as a college intern at PSNH, a power utility, and the fact that my brain is a ridiculous repository of useless information that becomes magically useful 30 years later.

What can a BLEVE do? People's exhibit A - the Kerch Straight Bridge railroad section, which is midway through a one-year closure (only 16 "light trains" have inched their way through the damaged section since October 8, and most of those were for emergency stabilization repairs and removed the damaged railcars). At least two tanks filled with fuel showed clear indications of experiencing a BLEVE, significantly increasing the damage to the structure.

With the fire in East Palestine spreading from February 3 to February 6, incident commanders were concerned that a super BLEVE was not just possible but likely inevitable. So a choice was made.

The euphemism of "controlled burn" is by the book. In reality, the only thing that was controlled was the decision to avoid a super BLEVE, which, if one occurred, could have leveled everything like a small atomic bomb within 1,600 meters of the crash site. It also would have sent shrapnel and toxic burning debris over a wider area, lighting spot fires across the region.

Some may be thinking, "don't railcars have pressure valves?" Yes, absolutely, and they are designed to let building pressure out and prevent flames from coming in. BLEVEs on railroad cars surrounded by fire are caused when pressure valves fail, the car itself ruptures because the valve can't relieve the pressure fast enough, or the valve fails/melts/blows out. In the case of the Kerch Straight Bridge, it was the second one - the cars eventually ruptured.

That's why incident commanders "released" the contents of five railroad cars containing vinyl chloride for a "controlled burn," which is a fancy way of saying, "preventing a town obliterating explosion." Nothing was controlled about the burn once they committed to releasing the chemicals.

But didn't this just create a new problem? One chemical-incrusted town, poisoned streams, and damage to the water table?

Yes.

The truth does matter, so a side note. The reports of dead fish are accurate and are being played down by government officials, who say it is in the thousands. There are numerous videos where people did a great job of making geolocation easy that show the numbers are much larger. The reports of dead chickens in backyard farms are somewhat overstated. One homeowner reported they came home to five dead chickens - that's the only report, and there has been no information on how close they were to the accident site. Reports of dead dogs and foxes being found are also accurate. A report of dead cattle 164 kilometers (100 miles) away connected to the accident is extremely doubtful and was started by a conspiracy theory-oriented source.

However, these things are invisible to the general public. A town leveled by a pressure wave, fireball, and dead firefighters is not. This does not create a favorable impression for the commentariat on social media and would provide much more coverage about the incident. Things that state, federal, and Norfolk Southern Railroad shareholders wanted to avoid.

The purpose of this is not meant to defend Norfolk Southern Railroad, the crumbling railroad infrastructure of the United States, the 2018 gutting of safety regulations that enabled 3,660-meter-long trains in the first place, or the EPA basing its decision to declare the town safe by data provided by - Norfolk Southern Railroad. It is meant to defend incident commanders and firefighters who faced a "Sophie's choice." One way or another, those chemicals would burn to create the situation the region still faces.

I'm not a fan of complaining about a situation and not offering a solution, so I rarely editorialize on things where I can't present a way to create change.

If you're from the United States and you're reading this, there is something you can do. It won't help East Palestine and the surrounding area, but it can help prevent future accidents.

For the most part, this incident has not been politicized. A funny thing about burning toxic chemicals, they don't care what political party you support, your skin color, or what you do in a bedroom in the company of consenting adults. You can contact your congresscritters at the House and Senate levels and demand, nicely:

• Reestablishing the safety regulations removed in 2018
• Requiring the EPA or a non-corporate connected third party to do safety evaluations after an accident of this scope, as it used to be
• Reestablish previously gutted staffing levels for railroad operations and listen to the subject matter experts, who have said after 2018, what happened in East Palestine was inevitable 
• Motivation through tax legislation for railroad companies to reinvest in their infrastructure (which is almost exclusively privately owned in the United States)
• Let your congresscritters know that you will be looking into who is funding their campaigns, and if they don't do at least one of the above, and if the money came from railroad interests, maybe your vote isn't guaranteed next election

The first three are common sense, and number four is a matter of national security. Number five is about the only that motivates your congresscritter to action. The clock is ticking because your congresscritters are hoping that the next...

Oh, look! Balloons!