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EAST PALESTINE -- East Palestine resident Andris Baltputnis was waiting to have the air in his home tested by the EPA on Tuesday morning.
A half hour before the 9:30 a.m. appointment, he got a phone call asking if it was OK to have a couple of people tag along.
"I never dreamed that the governor of Ohio and his wife would be in my living room," he said.
Baltputnis and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine along with U.S. EPA Administrator Michael Regan and U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson each drank a glass of water out of his spigot with about a dozen cameramen capturing the action.
East Palestine has been in the national news since a Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern train derailment that released chemicals into the air and streams.
"About an hour later, CNN in New York saw the video and said, 'Would you be willing to fly to New York and be on our 9 p.m. show (Wednesday),'" Baltputnis said.
Baltputnis, a well-known track and field public address announcer, told them he had to be back Thursday morning because he is working a track meet at Youngstown State University.
So CNN is picking him up in a limo this morning to take him to his flight out of the Pittsburgh International Airport and he'll be flying back in Thursday.
He was later asked to do a Zoom interview on Fox News this morning, but it didn't fit into his schedule.
The train cars derailed on Feb. 3 about 1,200 feet east of his home along Clark Street, which is by the railroad tracks.
"I was at home for the first Friday night since August," Baltputnis said. "I had a track meet I was prepping for. I didn't hear a thing. I got a text from one of my students (at Crestview) and asked if I was all right. That's how I found out."
He stepped out his door and saw the flames. He said he didn't smell anything from the wreck because the wind was blowing toward Pennsylvania.
"No one knocked on my door until Sunday," Baltputnis said. "They said, 'Sir, you really need to leave.'"
He stayed with his brother in Alliance for four days.
He was worried when he came back home, but not for long. He took a white cloth to wipe the outside of his windows and inside the house, but there was nothing.
Baltputnis said the EPA tested the air quality in several rooms in his house and there was "zero" traces of chemicals they were testing for.
"The media has caused so much panic," he said. "They put people in a panic."