WEYAUWEGA, Wis. — Tom Cullen knew it was something out of the ordinary when he got the page to report to the volunteer fire department in Weyauwega.

It happened to be a day off of work on March 4, 1996, when more than 30 cars derailed, with some bursting into flames that spread to a nearby feed mill. With hazardous materials on fire — or in the fire — fire officials opted to evacuate the city’s residents.

Cullen and other firefighters made their way to the railroad tracks on the edge of town.

“I live about three-and-a-half miles away as the crow flies, and I looked out my window and I could see the orange glow in the air,” he said. “I knew it was a major incident right away. There was a lot of fire in the air.”

“My residence was just outside the evacuation zone. I had a large enough garage we stored a couple fire trucks in there,” Cullen said. “We had firemen staying at our house so we could respond from there initially until we could find more places to store the fire trucks.”

Marietta Paap was helping move people from a health care center to St. Peter Lutheran School when firefighters told her and others to evacuate.

“All of a sudden, the firemen came in and said, ‘You all have to leave.’ And we said, ‘Leave school?’ And they said, ’No, leave town.'"

It would be more than two weeks before people were allowed to return to the community.

Paap said over the decades the community has bounced back from the crash that put the city’s name on the map.

“The first time I came to the railroad crossing after the event was over I parked a lot further back when I had to wait for a train to go through,” she said with a laugh. “You thought of it for a while and then people don’t focus on it. We’re pretty resilient around here. People realize we were blessed to get through this without having any deaths or serious harm to the city.”

Cullen is now chief of the Weyauwega Fire Department. The events of March 1996 are never far from his thoughts.

“This is a reality every day,” he said. “The amount of train traffic, not only in our area but across the United States, is constantly growing. Everything they’re shipping down the rail has this potential. The rails are safer than they use to be, but you never know when it’s going to happen."

The incident is similar to what recently happened in Ohio. On Friday night, a train derailed in far eastern Ohio near the Pennsylvania line. About 50 cars, including 10 carrying hazardous materials, derailed. It was traveling from from Madison, Illinois, to Conway, Pennsylvania, according to Norfolk Southern and the National Transportation Safety Board. No injuries to crew members, residents or first responders were reported.

Residents in the nearby area were ordered to evacuate, and officials did a "controlled release" of the toxic chemicals late Monday. It's still not known when residents will be able to return to their homes.

"Failure happens, human error happens so you never know when you could be faced with something like this again," said Cullen.