Residents near the Ohio-Pennsylvania state line to leave immediately or face the possibility of death. Toxic chemicals to be released into the air.

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio – Authorities plan to release toxic chemicals into the air from five derailed tanker cars that were close to exploding on Monday. People living near the state line between Ohio and Pennsylvania have been told to leave right away or they could die.

Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio told people to leave the area where the train derailed and has been burning since Friday night. He said that authorities think that most, if not all, of the people who lived in the danger zone have left, but that they were knocking on doors one more time before letting the vinyl chloride out of the cars.

“You need to leave, plain and simple. At a press conference before the controlled release at 3:30 p.m. EST, DeWine said, “This is a matter of life and death.”

Scott Deutsch from Norfolk Southern Railway said that doing this during the day will help the fumes spread out faster and keep the rail cars from exploding and sending shrapnel and other debris flying through the neighborhood.

“We can’t control where that goes,” Deutsch said, adding that he thought the release would take between one and three hours.

He said that a small charge is used to blow a hole in the cars, letting the material fall into a trench where it is burned off before being released into the air.

The site is very close to the state line, and the evacuation area goes into a part of Pennsylvania that has few people. About half of East Palestine’s 4,800 residents were told to leave over the weekend, before officials decided to use the controlled release on Monday.

Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania said that about 20 Pennsylvania residents live in the evacuation zone. As of Sunday night, though, about half of them were still in their homes. The Pennsylvania State Police went from house to house to help those people and make sure they left.

He said, “This is a big deal.” “I want you to know that if I were there right now, along with the First Lady and our kids, we would leave. We’d get out of here. It could cause too much harm.”

Sunday night, people were taken out of the village of East Palestine by force after a “dramatic temperature change” was seen in a rail car. This made the government worried that the rail cars could blow up.

Monday morning, people were putting together overnight bags, putting their pets in their cars, and looking for hotel rooms. As the threat of an explosion grew, the police in the village left their communication center.

Streets that led to the area were blocked by police cars, snow plows, and military vehicles from the Ohio National Guard.

According to the rail company Norfolk Southern and the National Transportation Safety Board, about 50 cars derailed in a fiery crash Friday night. Ten of the cars were carrying dangerous materials. No one on the crew, in the neighborhood, or among the first responders was hurt.

The National Cancer Institute of the United States says that five people were transporting vinyl chloride, which is used to make polyvinyl chloride hard plastic resin and is linked to an increased risk of liver cancer and other cancers.

Officials told hundreds more people to leave their homes because a train car could explode.

Federal investigators say that a problem with a rail car axle was what caused the train to go off the track.

Michael Graham, a board member of the NTSB, said Sunday that the three-person train crew was told about the problem “shortly before the derailment.” Investigators found the exact “point of derailment,” but he said the board was still trying to figure out which rail car’s axle was broken.

The village’s mayor, Trent Conaway, declared a state of emergency and said that one person was arrested for going around barricades right up until the crash. He told people to stay away, or they could get arrested.

He said, “I don’t know why anyone would want to be up there; if you’re that close, you’re breathing in poisonous fumes.”