March 24, 2024
Hi, Lauren Takores. I read with great interest your story on the 50th year anniversary of the train derailment in Emmons dated February 24. I was there and had put it out of my mind, but then it was suddenly very fresh in my memory.
I was working at WDOS in Oneonta at the time with Ron Shapley, Mark Becker, Al Sayers, Gary Hughes, Brian Levis, and Captain Sleet, among others. I did the morning show and was at the station in the afternoon ready to head home when we received the call about the train wreck, and I drove out along Route 7 to investigate. I remember heading east of the city out toward what was once the Jamesway plaza.
Back then WDOS was a daytime station. In the winter the FCC ruled we went off the air at 4:30 in the afternoon! I got to the scene and many fire trucks and their crews were on hand. I parked my car up on Route 7 and walked toward the train wreck which was probably a quarter of a mile or more down in a small valley. Looking at a current map, I-88 runs through there now.
The tanker cars were piled up on each other and I remember seeing what I later learned was an emergency escape value sending out a long flame of fire. This was a design feature of the tanker cars that allowed the fuel to burn under control, as long as the tank itself was not punctured. Unfortunately, the long flame, under control, was at the bottom of the pile of cars and was heating up another tanker lying on top. A blowtorch on a propane tank – not a good mix!
I remember seeing Tom Braddock and Bruce Endries a couple of hundred yards off to my left. Unfortunately for them, they were on a hilly section that led down to the tracks and the wreckage. I was standing above them on the top of the hill, watching the dozens of firemen trying to get control of the blaze.
Then “Boom!”. The tanker that was being heated up by the escape valve exploded. The ball of flame and black smoke shot up and rolled outward. Like Tim, I had just turned on my recorder to do a ROSR (Radio On Scene Report) when the blast knocked me backward. Fortunately, I was on top and immediately started rolling down the back side of the hillside. Fortunately, again, we had just had a few inches of snow and the field was covered. That, coupled with my rolling…boy scout trained!...put the fire out on my back. I was wearing one of those plastic winter jackets and the back of it melted! I was lucky. I remember someone yelling at me I was on fire and to keep rolling. Tim and Bruce, on the other side of the hill, found themselves on the wrong side of the reflection as the fire rolled up, caught them, and then over the hill.
When I got up, the top of the flames was still rising in a fireball hundreds of feet high, there was a trail of my equipment down the hill where I had rolled. I worked my way back up the hill, picked up my gear, and watched. It was clear the explosion had injured many of the firemen because they were right on top of the fire. Men were everywhere, lying down from the blast or moving around to try to help the injured. Sirens soon could be heard as ambulances approached. A few minutes later, a second explosion occurred, and this one sent one of the tanker cars, or maybe half of it, across the Susquehanna where it landed in the trees on another hillside to the south. I vividly remember it flying with a flaming trail as if it was a rocket. I think there were three explosions in all, several minutes apart.
Back then, of course, no cell phones, so I made my way back to the house I had parked at up on Route 7 to make a call to the radio station and get a news report on the air before the 430 deadline. (Maybe it was a store. I haven’t been back there in decades, but I plan to visit it this spring to jog my memory again.)
I got the report in with minutes to spare, and then WDOS had to go off the air until the next morning! The next day the story was news for radio stations across the East Coast. I received a dozen calls in all from Albany, Syracuse, Binghamton, and New York City, plus others, all wanting information about what happened. Being a news guy, I recorded a : 45-second piece, and that was transmitted out whenever a news operation called. Ironically, growing up in New York City and having dreams of being on the radio in the big city, that event and my recording was the first time I “made the big time” as we used to say. The report was heard by several of my extended family members.
But I’m not the story. I was only there to report on it. I don’t know any of the injured first responders, but I remember the general feeling of concern for their well-being. I’m glad to hear that Roy Althiser was able to overcome his injury and help better the emergency services in the area in later years.
I left Oneonta in 1975 to chase a broadcasting dream, doing play-by-play for the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the North American Soccer League. Covering the championship play of Oneonta State and Hartwick prepped me for that job! Since then, I’ve done the radio and television career as a broadcaster, cameraman, writer, director, and producer. I’m writing full time now in my retirement and my fifth novel is expected to be published this summer. I continue to dabble in voice-over and video production.
The explosive events of fifty years ago on a snow-covered hillside changed my life in many ways. Some good, some bad, but I go forward each day with my eyes open knowing the unexpected can happen at any time.
I understood that Oneonta city historian Mark Simonson was going to do a detailed book of some sort on the event. Did that ever happen? I was in touch with Mark 20 years ago when his article on the 30thanniversary appeared in the paper.
Again, your article woke up some long-forgotten (surpressed?) memories. I’m glad to be alive and able to remember. I look forward to my next trip to Main Street. Although, there aren’t 56 bars there anymore like there were when I was a student! Probably a good thing!
Of course, there is still the Novelty!
Best wishes,
Greg
Greg Gilmartin