Could the very thing that helped establish Brookhaven one day destroy part of it? Though it’s a highly unlikely scenario, a train derailment in the heart of the city would be catastrophic.

Homes and businesses would be destroyed, and life in the city as we know it would be forever changed. A front page story in today’s edition highlights what sort of preparations emergency personnel have made to deal with that unthinkable event.

Crude oil accounts for much of the freight that travels through Brookhaven, and officials said a derailment of oil cars could create a fire that would obliterate the structures near the tracks. That means several businesses, including The Daily Leader, would likely be gone. That’s a scary thought.

A train carrying crude oil derailed in West Virginia earlier this year. The derailment shot fireballs into the sky, burned down a nearby house and caused fires on the ground that smoldered for days. The Federal Railroad Administration on Friday said a broken rail caused the train to leave the tracks. Rail inspectors twice failed to identify the problem that caused the broken rail.

The defect that eventually resulted in the derailment — a vertical crack in the rail — was missed by rail carrier CSX Corp. and Sperry Rail Service, a contractor that provides ultrasonic track inspections, according to an investigation by the Federal Railroad Administration, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

FRA acting Administrator Sarah Feinberg urged rail carriers to work with Sperry to provide better training for rail inspectors and recommended CSX draw up a plan to replace track with similar flaws on hazardous train routes, the newspaper reported.

“All railroads, not just CSX, must be more diligent when inspecting for internal rail flaws or when contracting out inspection work,” she said.

“Friday’s findings highlight the inherent difficulty for inspectors to identify rail flaws that gradually develop internally,” according to the newspaper. “Track defects are the leading cause of derailments. Those often include largely visible deformities like an uneven foundation to a chipped rail to a broken cross-tie. But seemingly smooth rail can suddenly break open from internal flaws that require ultrasonic sensors.”

We hope that proper rail inspections are carried out locally. If they are not, the event that emergency responders pray never happens just might. We encourage any and all local agencies that deal with rail service to make safety a priority.