Morning Roundup: Fire station hit by car in Scott Township

Here are some of the latest news items from this morning, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023:

Driver crashes car into fire station in Scott

A driver crashed a car into the Bower Fill fire station in Scott Township late Tuesday night, causing significant damage to the building and closing one of the station’s parking lots.

The crash occurred after 11 p.m., and officials said no one was injured, according to Tribune-Review newspaper WPXI.

The Bower Hill fire station on Vanadium Road suffered significant damage, including bricks falling from the side of the building and one of the station’s garage doors boarded up. The station’s sign was knocked down and its flag pole was bent by the impact.

Despite the damage, Bower Hill station officials wrote on its Facebook page that the station remains fully operational and that firefights are still able to respond as normal to any call for assistance.

Bower Hill station officials are asking people to stay out of the station’s lower parking lot.

Air and water testing continues at Ohio derailment site

Officials conducted further air and water testing at a train derailment site in East Palestine, Ohio, about 50 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. Officials conducted a controlled explosion Monday to release chemicals from the downed train cars.

The National Guard took samples Tuesday night from the site and it is expected results for those tests will be provided Wednesday morning, according to WPXI.

At a press conference, Ohio National Guard Maj. Jeff Jones said they were conducting testing of the air monitors and inside some homes to verify if any of the chemicals related to the train derailment had infected area homes.

Officials are hoping to discover if homes are safe to reoccupy. The immediate area surrounding the train derailment site has been placed on an evacuation order for a few days.

Preliminary monitoring following the derailment has not yet shown any air quality impacts beyond the evacuation zone.