News 12 First @ Five -- January 6, 2010

GRANITEVILLE, S.C. --- Five years after the train left the track, people in Graniteville say they still feel like it all happened just yesterday.

It's such a familiar sound, hearing the train passing by on a cold winter day. But for people in Graniteville, it's a reminder of what turned their community upside down just five years ago.

"It was around noon i realized, 'he's not calling,'" said Sara Kennebeck. Her son John Laird, Jr. was working at Avondale Mills when the train left the track releasing chlorine into the air. She says her son was trying to run away from the spill when he died in the woods. Fifty-four hundred people were evacuated, John and eight others never made it out.

"It was like somebody poured a bunch of chlorine and it had your eyes and nose burning. It was like a nightmare," said Alvin Thomas who lives in Graniteville.

"He was a good boy, a special person. I know everybody says that about their kids, but he was special," said Kennebeck.

Family members say the hardest part of what happened on these very tracks five years ago is getting other people to realize they have to remember to keep the memory alive.

"I know there's families out there that say I'm not talking to the media, I just want it to go away. I doesn't go away," said Kennebeck.

Something else that never goes away, the loss of jobs and loved ones and the fear that it will happen again.

"There's deadly things that goes through your town everyday, everyday, you just don't know it's there and all it takes is one little act and you life will be changed forever." As this mother continues to honor her son's memory, she says even five years later, the hardest part of all is saying goodbye.

"I'll never hear his voice again. He's not here for holidays, birthdays. He's not here for any day," said Kennebeck.