Champion dog breeder, trainer, and kennel owner Katie Schwarzwaelder was out of town celebrating her 30th birthday when alarming phone calls got her phone jumping.
Friends and neighbors saw distant smoke in the direction of her 27-acre property in Darlington Township, Pennsylvania, and thought her kennel was on fire. Schwarzwaelder immediately called her kennel manager.
Dog breeder and trainer Katie Schwarzwaelder of Darlington Township, Pennsylvania, with one of her dogs during a competition. (Courtesy of Katie Schwarzwaelder)
The kennel manager told Schwarzwaelder the kennel was not on fire. Folks were seeing a fire from the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. The train tracks come within 10 feet of the edge of her property, and the derailment—about 650 feet from the Pennsylvania–Ohio border—was a half-mile from the kennel….