Monday, February 13, 2023 | 5:19 p.m.
The derailment of a freight train in Ohio near the Pennsylvania state line left a mangled and charred mass of boxcars and flames on Saturday and authorities launched a federal investigation and monitored air quality for the various hazardous chemicals on the train. The arrest of a News National journalist Evan Lambert, who covered the accident and the days that followed, denouncing on their networks a possible disaster of incalculable magnitudes due to the explosion of chemicals, unleashed a tangle of conspiracy theories that fill social networks at this time and that speak of a maneuver by the United States government United to cover up the accident with information about the sighting of Unidentified Flying Objects and their demolition.
It all started when about 50 train cars derailed in East Palestine, a community in Ohio. The incident occurred around 9:00 p.m. on Friday, February 3, when the train was transporting a variety of products from Madison, Illinois, to Conway, Pennsylvania. The problem was not the derailment, but the subsequent fire, which affected the chemical content of some wagons. “The post-derailment fire spanned the length of the derailed train cars,” Michael Graham, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), told reporters Saturday night.
Norfolk Southern reported that 20 of the more than 100 cars were classified as a means of transporting hazardous materials. These materials are thus defined for cargo that could represent any type of hazard “including flammable, combustible or environmental risks.” Graham said the derailment included 14 rail cars carrying vinyl chloride that “have been exposed to fire” and at least one “is intermittently releasing its contents via a pressure release device.”
“Right now we are working to verify which containers with hazardous materials, if any, have been affected,” he said. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Norfolk Southern continue to monitor air quality, and investigators will begin site operations “once the scene is safe and secure,” he added. . Vinyl chloride, used to make the rigid plastic resin polyvinyl chloride used in a variety of plastic products, is associated with an increase in liver and other cancers, according to the federal government’s National Cancer Institute. Federal authorities said they are also concerned about other potentially hazardous materials.
Indeed, East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway initially declared a state of emergency over a “hazardous materials train derailment,” later asserting that air quality monitors in a 1.6-kilometer (one-mile) zone ) had not shown dangerous readings.
As a result, 1,500 to 2,000 of the town’s 4,800 to 4,900 residents were evicted, but it was unknown how many were actually affected, Conaway said. Authorities converted a secondary school and a community center to house dozens of people. Among the few dozen residents who took refuge at the high school was Ann McAnlis, who said a neighbor had texted her about the accident.
After the accident, and after evaluating the situation and the possibilities, the specialized authorities decided that the best way to get rid of the polluting material, avoiding the least damage, was to start a controlled fire, accompanied by real-time monitoring of air quality. to avoid dangerous contamination. So it was that for six days they worked in the place. So far the information of the fact. But where is the conspiracy theory that relates it to alleged UFOs born?
conspiracy theories
So far everything seemed like one more dangerous event, but nothing that alarmed much beyond the limits of the affected city. As the days go by, the journalist Evan Lambert began to report on what was appreciated in the area. And he began to question the official information based on what he could see on the spot. Since while there was official talk of normal levels of air quality, operatives were seen in the city with workers who wore proper protection for work in contexts of high contamination. In addition, something that until now had not been mentioned by the authorities, he began to consider the possibility of the contamination of waterways.
The conspiracy theories did shoot up after Lambert was arrested last Thursday during a press conference where Governor Mike DeWine offered updated information on the accident. Lambert’s arrest occurred, according to official information, after the authorities asked him to stop broadcasting live with his cell phone what was happening behind the scenes of the preparations for the conference. Producing there an interdict that ended in his arrest.
This fact, and the intensity with which Lambert had reported what happened in the train accident, with much more information than the official channels, was enough for the specialists in developing conspiracy theories to activate themselves on social networks to unleash information chaos. in which there is talk of a “chemical Chernobyl” with dead fish from polluted rivers and dead cattle from polluted air.
The truth is that up to now the only certified and verifiable information is the official one, which does not indicate the existence of fatalities from the accident, and that the fire, with which they decided to get rid of the chemicals that could not be recovered, was controlled. six days after the accident. But conspiracy theories are, right now, running like wildfire on social media. Theories that ensure that the United States government is using the news of the shooting down of unidentified flying objects to hide what happened in Ohio.
