Trains LIVE — Walk through Fire — 5-17-2023 — It seemed as if the entire world had been turned upside down. On Feb. 24, 1978, that is what it felt like in the small town of Waverly, Tenn. Two days before, 23 cars of a 96-car Louisville & Nashville Railroad freight train derailed and piled up in the center of town. In the wreckage were two tank cars carrying liquefied petroleum gas. Residents had never seen anything like this before.
Then on Feb. 24 at 2:55 p.m., one of the tank cars exploded. A large portion of the town was burnt to the ground, 16 people died as a result of the explosion, including Waverly’s police chief and fire chief, and the local hospital with its tiny emergency room (160 square feet) was inundated with victims needing immediate medical attention.
Today we talk with Dr. Yasmine Ali, author of the book Walk through Fire — an accounting of what happened before, during, and after the disaster that caused our nation to take a long, hard look at the status of emergency preparedness and management. Dr. Ali’s hometown is Waverly and it was her parents, both physicians, that were on-duty in the hospital emergency room at the time of the explosion.
This is a must-read book that takes you through the horrific, life-altering minutes, hours, days and weeks surrounding an episode that shocked the nation.
This is Trains LIVE — Walk through Fire.
Trains LIVE is a regular video segment, recorded live and unscripted from Kalmbach Media. The series began in July 2022.
Trains LIVE features Bob Lettenberger, Trains associate editor, Kalmbach Media staff, and guests talking about railroads and trains in a casual, behind the scenes format. On Trains LIVE we will ask the questions you would like to ask and take you into places not normally open to the public. Trains LIVE also takes you on the road to museums, trackside locations and other railroad-related venues. It is unscripted and presented every other Wednesday at 2 p.m. Central time.
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