Norfolk Southern to provide $20 million toward fire sciences center in East Palestine

Norfolk Southern Railway has reached an agreement in principle to provide a $20 million grant toward the construction and operation of a first-responder training and fire sciences center in East Palestine, Ohio.

Under the agreement, NS will provide funding for the training center to Youngstown State University, which will design and build the center and create an endowment plan to support it. NS on Nov. 21 announced the agreement in collaboration with state and federal officials from Ohio, including Vice President JD Vance, who was one of the state's U.S. senators before becoming vice president in January.

A local dedicated training center for first responders had long been a part of NS's objectives for East Palestine, but staffing and operational concerns presented challenges to the center's long-term feasibility. The new agreement calls for YSU faculty and staff to create a curriculum that will address such concerns, NS officials said in a press release. 

“By working together, we’ve turned this vision of an economic and educational center dedicated to enhancing community safety into a sustainable reality," said NS President and CEO Mark George. "We are proud to provide this $20 million grant to help advance this training center for the region’s brave first responders, fire science students and the broader community.”

The training center is part of the NS commitment to help East Palestine recover from an NS train derailment and chemical release that occurred there in February 2023.