A train derailment has forced hundreds of Ohio and Pennsylvania residents to evacuate their homes for fear of toxic chemicals spewing from tanker cars.

And while the situation could happen anywhere, local emergency management officials say plans are in place for such hazardous situations that could occur in Butler County.

Following the Friday, Feb. 3, derailment of five tanker cars of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio, officials urged residents Monday to evacuate, or risk death, as toxic chemicals were being released to stop the possibility of the tankers exploding.

Those in 20 residences in nearby Beaver County were asked to evacuate while the chemicals were used on the cars, which have been burning since Friday.

Air monitoring so far had not detected dangerous levels of fumes in the Ohio and Pennsylvania communities near the derailment site, but residents living close to the wreckage still are not being allowed back, authorities said Tuesday, Feb. 7.

Steve Bicehouse, Butler County Emergency Services director, said the last train derailment of serious magnitude that he can recall in the county occurred more than 30 years ago.

“Something of this magnitude is unprecedented and uncommon,” he said Tuesday. “I can’t speak to what’s happening in Ohio. What I can say is if we had an event like that in Butler, I’d not be managing it myself. There’s a whole scale of resources available to us.”

Those resources aid first responders in the form of equipment and training through a group called Pennsylvania Region 13 Task Force, which Bicehouse said Butler and surrounding counties have been members of since the 1990s.

According to Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, Region 13 is comprised of 13 counties, including Butler, Venango, Allegheny, Armstrong and Beaver, the City of Pittsburgh and surrounding municipalities.

The entities work together in emergency situations, with committees meeting monthly to talk and train regarding large-scale hazards first responders could encounter.

Bicehouse said he is on the board of directors for Region 13, and its committees — such as law enforcement, fire and hazmat, bomb disposal and more — meet regularly.

“This is a well-established task force that’s demonstrated the value of group effort in assisting with large-scale events,” he said.

Should a situation involving a large hazardous waste spill or a train derailment occur in Butler, Bicehouse said, teams would be sent from surrounding counties to assist.

“I know we can’t handle large-scale events without each other,” he said.

Benefits of Butler’s involvement in the task force include sharing equipment such as generators, traffic control trailers and freshwater tankers that can be called into action in a disaster.

“There’s millions of dollars allocated as resources for all Region 13 (to use),” Bicehouse said. “They have special air-monitoring equipment that we could call and say, ‘Bring that.’”

Regarding a train derailment and toxic chemicals, Bicehouse said Butler County is one of 10 in the task force that has a hazardous waste team.

“They’d be in charge of leading the cleanup of hazardous materials. They’re all volunteers, and most are involved in emergency services,” he said.

Even volunteer firefighters have a level of training that could aid them in the containment of emergency situations, Bicehouse said.

“The majority of county volunteer firefighters are trained to operations level. This is a federal program that allows for them to do defense measures only in hazardous situations,” he said. “This includes evacuating people, keeping people from going in, putting up blockers.”

Firefighters who attack dangerous situations are called technicians and need to be trained in encapsulated protective suits to approach hazardous zones, he said.

The technicians are utilized on the hazmat team as specialized team members, Bicehouse said.

“We train constantly, making sure we keep up on the latest techniques,” he added.

Bicehouse said industries and work zones that are at high risk of catastrophe are required to submit safety plans to the county for approval.

“Plans are very general; they allow for (flexibility) and ever-changing conditions. You can’t plan for everything,” he said. “They list where to evacuate, what to do if there are certain products involved ... they have those plans on site, and we have a copy as well.”

For trains transporting chemicals, plans are not submitted to the county, but emergency responders are aware of safety measures that need to be taken.

“Railroads have different management to them. You don’t know the hazardous materials they’re transporting on the rail lines. They have rosters of what’s on board; their cars are plaqued so you know from a distance what’s in each car,” he said.

What’s most important in any type of emergency response is learning from them, Bicehouse said, and the East Palestine derailment is no exception.

“I think (these situations) allow for us to learn from what went right and what went wrong. Whether it’s a train derailment, a huge fire, you look at those and get stories from emergency service people themselves to see what they think went right or wrong,” he said. “When it’s right you celebrate with them, or you avoid their mistakes.”

In an update from Randy Padfield, director of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, no concerning air quality readings have been detected in the southwestern area of the state near the crash site. He instructed Pennsylvanians who were evacuated to continue to stay away from the site.