DARLINGTON, Pa. (WKBN) – There’s a mysterious item that has shown up outside a Darlington family’s home. The Corbins were driving into East Palestine the night the train derailed, saw the fire and went home. They grabbed items and went to a hotel. Jerry Corbin returned home on his birthday and is still stumped with what he’s seeing.

Every so often in the Corbins’ backyard in Darlington, you run across a small flake of what looks like ash.

“Once you train your eye to it, you start seeing it everywhere because it has a glow towards blue, gray, blue slate — very strange,” Corbin said.

Colorful yet thinner than a piece of paper. The flakes are also very fragile. There are a few pieces left.

Corbin said when he returned home six days after the derailment, his yard was covered with this ash.

“I don’t know what this is and I’m getting so aggravated and so frustrated that I don’t care if it’s hazardous or not. I want it out of my yard,” he said.

Corbin doesn’t know if the small flakes are from the train fire or the controlled release. He lives less than a mile and a half from the crash site.

His wife puts sticks in the ground to mark the ones she sees.

“It’s essential that I know what’s in it because I even have a garden. I plant my garden. I’m gonna grow tomatoes, onions, peppers,” Corbin said.

The ash still blows around. It’s breaking down and getting into the soil, which is a concern. Corbin had half a Mason jar, but he’s given some to lawyers and the EPA for testing. Nobody has answered what it is.

“It’s not mine. It belongs to Norfolk Southern. They should come over here and get it out of my yard,” Corbin said.

Corbin is a radio host on WXED in Ellwood City and has written a book called The Family Gold. He just wants answers about the flakes, along with independent testing to prove the air, soil and water are safe.