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Freight train derailment causes huge fire and evacuations in Canada
Reports say 73 fuel-carrying rail cars ablaze after derailment at 1am local time in Lac-Magéntic, in Quebec
Reuters
The Guardian, Saturday 6 July 2013 15.30 BST
Thousands of residents in the Canadian town of Lac-Mégantic were evacuated early on Saturday, after a freight train carrying crude oil derailed, sparking a major fire.
Several tanker cars of petroleum products exploded in the middle of the small town in the Canadian province of Quebec, in a blast that destroyed many buildings and sent flames hundreds of feet into the air. Police in Lac-Megantic, a lakeside town of about 6,000 people, said they had been unable to determine if there were any casualties. Fire officials said around 30 buildings in the town center were destroyed, some by the blast and others by the subsequent fire.
"When you see the center of your town almost destroyed, you'll understand that we're asking ourselves how we are going to get through this event," a tearful town mayor, Colette Roy-Laroche, told a televised news briefing.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said four pressurised tanker cars blew up after the train, which had 73 cars in all, came off the rails shortly after 1am. Fire officials said they feared more of the tanker cars were at risk of exploding. Around 1,000 people were evacuated from their homes.
Lac-Mégantic is part of Quebec's picturesque Eastern Townships region, close to the border with Maine and Vermont. Quebec is a predominantly French-speaking province in the eastern half of Canada.
Pictures taken in the moments after the disaster showed a huge fireball rising into the night sky. Residents told reporters they had heard five or six large blasts. Huge clouds of thick black smoke were still rising from the center of Lac-Mégantic several hours after the disaster.
Fire officials said they had asked for help from fire services in the United States. Around 20 fire engines were fighting the blaze. Police said some of the rail cars had spilled their contents into the river that runs through the town.
"I can say absolutely nothing about victims … We've been told about people who are not answering their phones, but you have to understand that there are people who are out of town and on holiday," a police spokesman, Michel Brunet, told the briefing.
The rail line is operated by Montreal, Maine & Atlantic, which owns 510 miles of track in Maine and Vermont in the United States and in Quebec and New Brunswick in Canada. Fire officials said the contents of the tanker cars that blew up had been pressurized.
"There are still wagons which we think are pressurized. We're not sure because we can't get close, so we're working on the assumption that all the cars were pressurized and could explode. That's why progress is slow and tough," said local fire chief Denis Lauzon.
Satellite images show the railroad snaking through downtown, following a route parallel to the shore of the lake that the town is named after, before heading inland and crossing the US border to the west of town.
There have been a number of high-profile derailments of trains carrying petroleum products in Canada recently, including one in Calgary, Alberta, last week when a flood-damaged bridge sagged toward the still-swollen Bow River. The derailed rail cars were removed without spilling their cargo.
Breaking news: Canadian town center 'wiped out' as freight train carrying hundreds of tons of crude oil derails and explodes
60 people believed to be missing
About 30 buildings destroyed in Lac Megantic
Force of blaze preventing rescue workers from checking for survivors
Oil from train cars is spilling into nearby river
By JESSICA JERREAT PUBLISHED: 14:40 GMT, 6 July 2013 | UPDATED: 16:20 GMT, 6 July 2013
The center of a Quebec town has been wiped out, according to the mayor, after a freight train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded in a fireball at 1am on Saturday. About 30 buildings were destroyed and 60 people are believed to be missing, but the force of the fire has prevented rescue workers from searching for survivors. Parts of the town were evacuated in the early hours as fireballs shot several metres in the air, flames spread to nearby homes and thick acrid smoke filled the air in Lac-Megantic, which is close to the Maine border and about 250km from Montreal.
Fireball: A cloud of fire is blasted into the sky above Lac Megantic after a freight train exploded
Explosive: Balls of fire and thick smoke fill the sky above Lac Megantic after a train carrying crude oil derailed
The force of the blaze has prevented emergency workers from getting close to the damaged buildings to check for survivors. It is not yet known if anyone was killed or injured in the blast, according to the Hamilton Spectator. The Montreal Maine & Atlantic train did not have a driver and was being run on autopilot.About 30 shops and homes in the town center, including the library and local weekly newspaper's office, were destroyed by the fire, which is being dealt with by firefighters from Quebec and Maine.
'We do fear that there are going to be casualties,' Sergeant Gregory Gomez del Prado, of Quebec Police, told CTV News. Witnesses said the blast flattened an apartment building and part of a pub, which had a terrace packed with people at the time of the fire, according to CBC.
The ferocity of the blaze has made authorities fear for the safety of many of the lakeside town's 6,000 residents. About 120 firefighters are still trying to contain the fire in the town center.
'When you see the center of your town almost destroyed, you'll understand that we're asking ourselves how we are going to get through this event,' the town's mayor, Colette Roy-Laroche, said.'We're told some people are missing but they may just be out of town or on vacation,' Lieutenant Michel Brunet, of Quebec police, said.A Facebook page has been set up to help friends and family check on their loved ones, according to the Toronto Star.
Devastation: Residents said the explosion looked the the end of the world, as thick smoke and flames filled the sky
Rescue: As the town was evacuated residents watched in horror as the fire spread
Destruction: About 30 buildings in the center of the town, near the border with Maine, have burnt down
An emergency center set up in a school has also been inundated with requests for help.Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper has sent his sympathy to the stricken town. 'Thoughts & prayers are with those impacted in Lac Megantic. Horrible news,' he said on Twitter.
Flames could be seen from several miles away as the fire spread to several homes after the 73-car Montreal Maine & Atlantic train, which was heading towards Maine, derailed.Zeph Kee, who lives about half an hour from Lac-Megantic, told CBC: 'It was total mayhem ... people not finding their kids.'
Resident Anne-Julie Hallee, who saw the explosion, said: 'It was like the end of the world.'Another resident, Claude Bedard, said: 'It's terrible. We've never seen anything like it. The Metro store, Dollarama, everything that was there is gone.'
Locator: The Montreal Maine & Atlantic train derailed about 250km from Montreal
Some of the oil has leaked into a lake and the Chaudiere River, and plumes of thick smoke are still above the town several hours after the blast. 'We have a mobile laboratory here to monitor the quality of the air,' Environment Quebec spokesman Christian Blanchette said.'Firefighters are working hard to extinguish that fire, but it’s burning hard because of the crude oil,' Gergeant Gomez del Prado said,adding that it would take a while for the fire to be contained.
Derailment: Smoke is still filling the streets around where the 73-car freight train derailed
Pollution: Environmental workers are monitoring the plumes of smoke, as well as contamination of a river
'We also have a spill on the lake and the river that is concerning us. We have advised the local municipalities downstream to be careful if they take their water from the Chaudiere River.'Firefighters have set up a perimeter around the town as they try to tackle the blaze, which was caused when four of the cars that were pressurized blew up.
'There are still wagons which we think are pressurized. We're not sure because we can't get close, so we're working on the assumption that all the cars were pressurized and could explode. That's why progress is slow and tough,' local fire chief Denis Lauzon said.The cause of the derailment is not yet known.
By Clement Sabourin, AFP Updated July 7, 2013, 3:29 pm
At least 80 people are missing after a driverless oil tanker train derailed and exploded in the small Canadian town of Lac-Megantic, destroying dozens of buildings.
The accident in the small Quebec town, located around 250km east of Montreal, created a spectacular fireball and forced 2,000 people from their homes.
Officials earlier only confirmed one fatality, but had warned the toll could rise. A search for bodies was to begin Sunday at dawn.
The firefighter said on condition of anonymity that there had been at least 50 people in one bar that was consumed by the flames.
"There is nothing left," he said.
Witnesses reported as many as six explosions after the train derailed at about 1.20am in Lac-Megantic, a picturesque resort town of 6,000 residents near the border with the US state of Maine.
Michel Brunet, a spokesman for Quebec's provincial police, said late on Saturday the official death toll remained at one but added: "We expect there will be more fatalities."
Radio-Canada had earlier reported that 60 people were unaccounted for in Lac-Megantic, where the blaze was still raging, 20 hours on.
"There have been several reports" from people who said they were unable to reach relatives who lived near the accident site, Brunet said.
"The fire is still raging, our investigators have not yet even be able to get close to the scene," he added, more than 12 hours after the incident.
An initial evacuation zone of a kilometre around the crash site was widened on Saturday as a precaution against harmful particles in the air, bringing the total to 2,000 people forced to leave their homes.
Around 150 firefighters were battling the blaze, including some who came across the border from Maine, just 25km south of the town.
The cause of the crash was still unknown, but a spokesman for the Montreal Maine & Atlantic company, Christophe Journet, told AFP the train had been stopped in the neighbouring town of Nantes, around 13km west of Lac-Megantic, for a crew changeover.
For an unknown reason, Journet said, the train "started to advance, to move down the slope leading to Lac-Megantic," even though the brakes were engaged.
As a result, "there was no conductor on board" when the train crashed, he said.
A team of investigators from Canada's transportation safety agency was quickly dispatched to the scene to investigate.
One witness, Nancy Cameron, posted a photo on social media websites showing one of the train's locomotives spouting flames near Nantes.
Other witnesses were in Lac-Megantic when the train came barrelling in.
"When we came out of a bar, we saw cars arriving in the center of town at full speed," Yvon Rosa told Radio-Canada.
"We heard explosions and there was fire everywhere. We ran to the edge of the water," Rosa said.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered his "thoughts and prayers" to the community and said the federal government was ready to provide assistance.
The Montreal Maine & Atlantic train consisted of five locomotives and 77 rail cars and was carrying oil from the US state of North Dakota, said the company's vice president of marketing, Joe McGonigle.
But Quebec authorities spoke of 72 cars transporting 100 tonnes of oil each.
Three people have died and at least 80 are missing after a driverless "ghost train" carrying crude oil, derailed and sparked several explosion in the middle of a small town in the Canadian province of Quebec.
The death toll is expected to rise as rescuers cautiously entered the charred debris on Sunday, more than 24 hours after the spectacular crash that saw flames shoot into the sky and burn into the night.
At least 30 buildings are believed to have been destroyed in the blast in Lac-Megantic on Saturday, and up to 1,000 people have been evacuated from the area.
The incident occurred shortly after 5 GMT when a freight train derailed in Lac-Megantic, a lakeside town of about 6,000 people near the border with Maine.
Although police said they could not yet get close enough to determine whether there were any casualties from the still-burning fires, an aerial photograph showed widespread devastation in the town centre.
Police Sergeant Gregory Gomez del Prado, speaking from Montreal, told Al Jazeera that the authorities were on the scene trying to contain the fire but have not yet been able to extinguish it.
He added that the provincial police were also concerned of the impact of the oil on the environment.
Al Jazeera's Daniel Lak, reporting from Lac-Megantic, said the explosion had taken place in an area including popular restaurants and cafes.
Our correspondent said that the train's crew had tied down for a crew change 11km down the track several hours before the train, without a driver, rolled in to town and derailed.
Pressurised tanks
A witness told a local broadcaster the town centre had been crowded at the time of the derailment. Radio-Canada reported that one building at the centre of the town was a bar popular with young people.
"Many parents are worried because they haven't been able to communicate with a member of their family or an acquaintance," Mayor Colette Roy-Laroche told the local channel.
"We can't give out any information on what's happening right now because the firemen haven't been able to get close."
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said four pressurised tank cars blew up after the train, which had 73 cars in all, came off the rails. Residents told reporters they had heard five or six large blasts.
Fire officials said they feared more of the tanker cars were at risk of exploding. About 30 buildings in the town centre were destroyed, some by the initial blast and others by the subsequent fire, they said.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper made an initial statement via Twitter: "Thoughts & prayers are with those impacted in Lac Megantic. Horrible news."
Lac-Megantic is part of Quebec's Eastern Townships region, an area popular with tourists that is close to the order with Maine and Vermont. Quebec is a predominantly French-speaking province in the eastern half of Canada.
Our correspondent said that some residents and police had said that the oil may be spilling into the aqueducts and the river.
Five dead, 40 missing in Canada train crash, fire
AFP Updated July 8, 2013, 11:33 pm
LAC MEGANTIC, Canada / Quebec (AFP) - Canadian officials said they found five bodies as they searched for victims of a giant blaze caused by the crash of a runaway train transporting crude oil, and fear they could find as many as 40 more.
Firemen in this picturesque Quebec lakeside town finally managed to put out a raging inferno sparked when the driverless freight train derailed, crashed into town and exploded early Saturday, sending fireballs skyward and unleashing a wall of fire that tore through homes and businesses.
"The flames, the fires all have been put out now. We did it," fire chief Denis Lauzon told a press briefing.
That meant police finally would be able to conduct a full search of the charred wreckage at the disaster scene.
However a mid-level explosion was heard around 10:00 pm (0200 GMT Monday). Police said they did not know the cause of that blast.
The fire decimated a downtown portion of Lac-Megantic, population 6,000, and forced about 2,000 residents to flee their homes. The town is located 250 kilometers (155 miles) east of Montreal, near the US border.
Police spokesman Michel Brunet said after finding one body on Saturday and four on Sunday, they anticipate "many more" fatalities. The official figure for missing people is 40, he said.
One firefighter said on condition of anonymity that there had been at least 50 people in one bar that was consumed by the flames.
"There is nothing left," he said.
The explosion completely leveled more than four blocks of the town's downtown area, and it took firefighters 18 hours to contain the inferno.
Survivors described a wall of flames as the speeding black tanker cars jumped the rail tracks just as dozens of people were enjoying a summer night out in downtown bars and restaurants.
"One young girl was in flames," said a witness, Jean-Guy Nadeau. "She cried out 'save me, save me!'"
Many in this heavily Catholic area were unable to go to Sunday services because their church was squarely within the burned out area. The lucky ones headed to churches in nearby towns.
Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway said in a statement Saturday that the train had been transporting 72 carloads of crude oil when it derailed at around 1:20 am (0520 GMT).
"People are in shock, They just cannot believe how serious this all is," said Guy Boulanger, an official with the Catholic diocese of Sherbrooke in nearby Sainte-Cecile-de-Whitton.
Rail line spokesman Christophe Journet told AFP the train had been stopped in the neighboring town of Nantes, around 13 kilometers west of Lac-Megantic, for a crew changeover.
For an unknown reason, Journet said, the train "started to advance, to move down the slope leading to Lac-Megantic," even though the brakes were engaged.
There was no conductor on board when the train crashed, he said.
Outrage spread among local residents Sunday as they learned that the train owners had called out Nantes firefighters to put out a fire on one of the train's five locomotives.
That 45-minute fire was caused by an oil leak due to mechanical engine problems, Nantes Mayor Sylvain Gilbert told Radio-Canada.
Less than two hours later the driverless train barrelled into Lac-Megantic.
Scores of firefighters from around the region and from the US state of Maine were enlisted to battle the blaze, which was under investigation by Canada's Transportation Safety Board (TSB).
The lead investigator, Ed Belkaloul, said that the train's equivalent of an airplane's "black box" was recovered from the smoldering wreckage and could give valuable technical information on the crash.
One witness, Nancy Cameron, posted a photo on social media websites showing one of the train's locomotives spouting flames near Nantes.
"When we came out of a bar, we saw cars arriving in the center of town at full speed," another witness, Yvon Rosa, told Radio-Canada.
"We heard explosions and there was fire everywhere. We ran to the edge of the water," Rosa said.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Saturday offered his "thoughts and prayers" to the community, and said the federal government was ready to provide assistance.
Provincial authorities said in addition to their recovery efforts, they have dispatched a mobile environmental monitoring laboratory to monitor air quality and to determine how much crude oil spilled into Lake Megantic and the nearby Chaudiere River.
The Red Cross also set up an emergency shelter at an area high school to help those left homeless by the disaster.
