Norfolk Southern, the company behind the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, announced hours before a Wednesday town hall with residents that officials representing the firm would not attend.
Local officials had scheduled the public meeting as citizens continue to raise concerns over the February 3 accident. Authorities had evacuated all residents within one mile of the crash and started a controlled burn of the volatile chemicals to decrease the risk of an explosion; vinyl chloride, a carcinogenic substance, was released from five train cars in the form of massive plumes of dark smoke visible throughout eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania.
Though residents were promised a town hall meeting, officials changed the event to an informational session with local and state representatives, according to a report from The New York Times.
