TOLEDO, Ohio — On Thursday, State Representative Haraz Ghanbari told WTOL 11 that the same train carrying hazardous materials that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 3 also passed through Toledo.
Leaders in Ohio and other areas are now talking about safety when it comes to hazardous materials passing through and what they can do now to prevent another serious derailment.
So, what would first responders do if a train carrying hazardous materials derailed in Toledo?
Toledo Fire & Rescue's special operation unit responds to events like this when they do happen.
The unit responds to 18 counties in northwest Ohio, and while they did not go to respond to eastern Ohio, TFRD Pvt. Jake Hoffman, part of the special operations unit, said those first on the scene aren't usually Hazardous Materials Management -- hazmat -- technicians.
"They're going to try to evacuate as much as they can, deal with any immediate life-saving hazards and also try to contain the incident as much as they can, so any chemical that's built try to keep it where it is," Hoffman said.
This also means they may not have all the equipment they need right away before a full hazmat team is dispatched. If it's in a smaller region without the right teams, they'll call for mutual aid from another department too.
Multiple factors affect the severity and how first responders handle dangerous situations like the one in East Palestine.
"What the chemical is, wind speed, direction, temperature, things like that, try to anticipate where the plume might go, how many people might be affected in that area, where we would need to evacuate people," Hoffman said.
He said the conductor or engineer from the railroad -- in East Palestine's case, it's Norfolk Southern Railroad -- can tell crews what was on the train and what cars were affected.
Five of the derailed train cars in East Palestine were carrying vinyl chloride.
Officials decided to do a controlled release of the chemicals to prevent a more dangerous explosion. Pvt. Sterling Rahe, TFRD's public information officer, said his department has also had those "what if" discussions.
"These types of incidents, the magnitude of them is not seen on a regular basis and you have to look at them and formulate plans, how would you look at them in your home state, your backyard," Rahe said.