EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (WJW) -- The February 2023 derailment of more than 30 cars in a Norfolk Southern train sent a toxic brew of chemicals flowing into local creeks, shrouding the community in a fog of smoke. One day later, there was an evacuation order. Three days later, Gov. Mike DeWine authorized the "vent and burn" of five tanker cars containing vinyl chloride.

That event became the most familiar in the derailment's aftermath, sending a mushroom cloud of black, toxic smoke over the skies above East Palestine.

Testifying before the U.S. Senate last year, National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said that "vent and burn" was not necessary.

"There was another option: Let it cool down. It was cooling down," said Homendy.

"It was stabilized well before the vent a

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