I just make them stop and go and its varnish that I handle. I have however taken hits on draggers and hot box detectors and had to walk and templestick trains in my career. Never found a hot one and in the case of this accident it looks like all the holes in the swiss cheese lined up.
I do have a question on the handling of the cars in question though and perhaps they have been answered.
https://wwwn.cdc.gov/TSP/MMG/MMGDetails ... stabilizer.
At room temperature, vinyl chloride is a colorless, highly flammable, potentially explosive gas. It has a faint sweet odor. The odor threshold for vinyl chloride is about 3,000 ppm in air, depending on the individual. When confined under high pressure in special containers, vinyl chloride exists in a liquefied state. It is shipped and handled this way. When burned or heated to a high enough temperature, vinyl chloride decomposes to hydrogen chloride, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and traces of phosgene. Vinyl chloride should be stored in a cool, dry, well ventilated location, separate from oxidizing materials and accelerants. Phenol is often added as a stabilizer.
So once reading the above and in the world of better living through chemistry. I question the decision to control demo a bunch of cars carrying this stuff, I get it. It may well have touched off by itself. But deep down inside I have a feeling somebody wanted that messed cleaned up yesterday so that Toppers Gravy Train could get back to running.
It does not matter how much money NS throws to EP that town will never be the same. Sure it will still be in the news cycle for a bit but when it comes time to sell sell sell all those people are going to hear are crickets.
The EPA is a joke and has been for years like most other Gov't agencies they go were da money is. It often tailors its science to what it wants and keeps peer review out of the equation.