It was a very tough weekend for human tragedies ~ this Quebec train disrailment is awful ~ so are the plane crash in San Francisco [that somehow miraculously only killed 2] and the plane crash in Alaska [that killed 10] ~ ~ Sooz

Sunday, Jul 7, 2013 03:45 PM CDT
Quebec police report 5 dead in oil train derailment
With dozens of people reported missing, authorities fear they could find more bodies.
By Associated Press


Smoke rises from railway cars that were carrying crude oil after derailing in downtown Lac Megantic, Quebec, Canada, Saturday, July 6, 2013. A large swath of Lac Megantic was destroyed Saturday after a train carrying crude oil derailed, sparking several explosions and forcing the evacuation of up to 1,000 people.(Credit: AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Paul Chiasson)

LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec (AP) — As firefighters doused still burning oil tanker cars, more bodies were recovered Sunday in this devastated town in eastern Quebec, raising the death toll to five after a runaway train derailed, igniting explosions and fires that destroyed the downtown district. With dozens of people reported missing, authorities feared they could find more bodies once they reached the hardest-hit areas.

Quebec provincial police Lt. Michel Brunet said Sunday that about 40 people have been reported missing, but cautioned that the number could fluctuate up or down.

“We met many people who had reported family members missing. Right now I can tell you about 40,” Brunet said.

Brunet confirmed two more deaths early Sunday afternoon after confirming two people were found dead overnight. One death was confirmed Saturday.

All but one of the 73 cars were filled with oil, which was being transported from North Dakota’s Bakken oil region to a refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick.

The eruptions early Saturday morning sent residents of Lac-Megantic scrambling through the streets under the intense heat of towering fireballs and a red glow that illuminated the night sky.

Local Fire Chief Denis Lauzon likened the charred scene to “a war zone.”

“This is really terrible. Our community is grieving and it is taking its toll on us,” Mayor Colette Roy-Laroche said.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper toured the town on Sunday to offer his condolences.

The search for victims in the charred debris was hampered because two tanker cars were still burning Sunday morning, sparking fears of more potentially fatal blasts.

Lauzon said firefighters are staying 500 feet (150 meters) from the burning tankers, which are being doused with water and foam to keep them from overheating.

“It’s a mess,” he said.

The multiple blasts came over a span of several hours in the town of 6,000, which is about 155 miles (250 kilometers) east of Montreal and about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of the Maine border.

About 30 buildings were destroyed after tanker rail cars laden with oil caught fire and exploded in the picturesque lakeside town in Quebec’s Eastern Townships.

The derailment caused at least five tanker cars to explode in the downtown district, a popular area packed with bars that often bustles on summer weekend nights. Police said the first explosion tore through the town shortly after 1 a.m. local time. The fire then spread to several homes.

Brunet said he couldn’t say where the bodies were found exactly because the families have not been notified.

The cause of the accident was believed to be a runaway train, the railway’s operator said.

Edward Burkhardt, the president and CEO of Rail World Inc., the parent company of Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway, said the train had been parked uphill of Lac-Megantic because the engineer had finished his run. The tanker cars somehow came loose and sped downhill nearly seven miles into the town before derailing.

“We’ve had a very good safety record for these 10 years,” Burkhardt said of the decade-old railroad. “Well, I think we’ve blown it here.”

Joe McGonigle, Montreal, Maine & Atlantic’s vice president of marketing, said the company believes the brakes were the cause. He said the rail company has been in touch with Canada’s Transportation Safety Board.

“Somehow those brakes were released and that’s what is going to be investigated,” McGonigle said in a telephone interview. “We’re pretty comfortable saying it is the brakes. The train was parked, it was tied up. The brakes were secured. Somehow it got loose.”

Lauzon, the fire chief, said that firefighters in a nearby community were called to a locomotive blaze on the same train a few hours before the derailment. Lauzon said he could not provide additional details about that fire since it was in another jurisdiction. Nantes Fire Chief Patrick Lambert couldn’t be immediately reached, but McGonigle confirmed the fire department showed up after the first engineer tied up and went to a local hotel and after someone reported a fire.

“We know that one of our employees from our engineering department showed up at the same time to assist the fire department. Exactly what they did is being investigated so the engineer wasn’t the last man to touch that train, we know that, but we’re not sure what happened,” McGonigle said.

McGonigle said there was no reason to suspect any criminal or terror-related activity.

Because of limited pipeline capacity in North Dakota’s Bakken region and in Canada, oil producers are increasingly using railroads to transport much of the oil to refineries on the East, Gulf and West coasts, as well as inland. Harper has called railroad transit “far more environmentally challenging” while trying to persuade the Obama administration to approve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast.

The proliferation of oil trains has raised concerns of a major derailment like this. McGonigle said it is a safe way to transport oil.

“There’s much more hazardous material that moves by rail than crude oil. We think it is safe. We think we have a safe operation. No matter what mode of transportation you are going to have incidents. That’s been proven,” McGonigle said. “This is an unfortunate incident.”

Myrian Marotte, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Red Cross in Lac-Megantic, said there are about 2,000 evacuees and said 163 stayed at their operations center overnight.

“There are those are still looking for loved ones,” Marotte said.

Marotte said many of the evacuees are staying with family and friends. “Some people have lost everything,” she said.

Lines of tall trees in the area looked like giant standing matchsticks, blackened from bottom to tip. Witnesses said the eruptions shook residents out of their slumber and sent them darting through the streets.

Patrons gathered at a nearby bar were sent running for their lives after the thunderous crash and wall of fire blazed through the early morning sky.

Bernard Theberge, who was outside on the bar’s patio at the time of the crash, feared for the safety of those inside the popular Musi-Cafe when the first explosion went off.

“People started running and the fire ignited almost instantaneously,” he said.

“It was like a movie,” said Theberge, who considered himself fortunate to escape with only second-degree burns on his right arm. “Explosions as if it were scripted — but this was live.”

Firefighters and rescue workers from several neighboring municipalities, including Sherbrooke and Saint-Georges-de-Beauce, were called in to help deal with the disaster. Firefighters from northern Maine were also deployed to the Quebec town, according to a spokesman at the sheriff’s office in Franklin County.

The train belongs to Montreal Maine & Atlantic. According to the railroad’s website, the company owns more than 500 miles (800 kilometers) of track serving Maine, Vermont, Quebec and New Brunswick.

Last week a train carrying petroleum products derailed in Calgary, Alberta, when a flood-damaged bridge sagged toward the still-swollen Bow River. The derailed rail cars were removed without spilling their cargo.

The Quebec accident was likely to have an impact across the border. In Maine, environmentalists and state officials had previously raised concerns about the threat of an accident involving the rail tank cars carrying crude oil across the state.

The Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway carried nearly 3 million barrels of oil across Maine last year. Each tank car holds some 30,000 gallons (113,600 liters) of oil.

Maine state officials were notified about concerns about the smoke from the fire but staff meteorologists don’t believe it will have a significant impact, Peter Blanchard of the state Department of Environmental Protection said Sunday.

The Maine environmental agency had previously begun developing protection plans for areas in the state through which the oil trains travel.

But Glen Brand, director of the environmentalist Sierra Club’s Maine chapter, said the Quebec derailment is reason enough to call for an immediate moratorium on the rail transport of oil through the state.

“This tragic accident is part of the larger problem of moving oil through Maine and northern New England,” Brand said. “It reinforces the importance of moving away from dirty fossil fuels that expose the people of northern New England, Maine and Quebec to a host of dangerous risks.”

French President Francois Hollande’s office issued a statement offering condolences to the victims in the predominantly French-speaking Canadian province.

Associated Press writer Rob Gillies and Charmaine Noronha contributed from Toronto.

http://www.salon.com/2013/07/07/quebec_police_report_5_dead_in_oil_train_derailment_ap/

Updated information ~ Sooz

40 Still Missing In Quebec Oil Tanker Explosion


The downtown core lays in ruins as fire fighters continue to water smoldering rubble Sunday, July 7, 2013 in Lac Megantic, Quebec after a train derailed ignited tanker cars carrying crude oil.

BENJAMIN SHINGLER- July 8, 2013, 8:08 AM

LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec (AP) — A Quebec town devastated when a runaway oil tanker train ignited explosions and fires braced Monday for what authorities assured would be a rising death toll as fire crews tried to reach the hardest hit areas more than two days after the disaster. Five were dead and about 40 people remained missing.

The growing number of trains transporting crude oil in Canada and the United States had raised concerns of a major derailment, and this one was sure to add to the debate over a proposed cross-U.S. oil pipeline that Canada says it badly needs.

All but one of the train’s 73 tanker cars were carrying oil when they somehow came loose early Saturday morning, sped downhill nearly seven miles (11 kilometers) into the town of Lac-Megantic, near the Maine border, derailed and began exploding one by one. At least five blew.

Worries remained late Sunday over the status of two oil-filled train cars at the scene. They were being doused with water and foam to keep them from overheating.

“This is an unbelievable disaster,” said Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who toured the town Sunday and compared it to a war zone. “This is an enormous area, 30 buildings just completely destroyed, for all intents and purposes incinerated. There isn’t a family that is not affected by this.”

The downtown bar area had been bustling at the time of the crash. Quebec provincial police Sgt. Benoit Richard said only a small part of the devastated scene had been searched Sunday as firefighters made sure all flames were out. About a third of the community of 6,000 was forced out of their homes.

Locals were convinced the death toll was far higher than five. Anne-Julie Huot, 27, said at least five friends and about 20 acquaintances remained unaccounted for.

“I have a friend who was smoking outside the bar when it happened, and she barely got away, so we can guess what happened to the people inside,” Huot said. “It’s like a nightmare.”

A coroner’s spokeswoman said it may not be possible to recover some of the bodies because of the intensity of the blasts.

The train’s oil was being transported from North Dakota’s Bakken oil region to a refinery in New Brunswick. Because of limited pipeline capacity in the Bakken region and in Canada, oil producers are increasingly using railroads to transport oil to refineries.

The Canadian Railway Association recently estimated that as many as 140,000 carloads of crude oil will be shipped on Canada’s tracks this year — up from 500 carloads in 2009. The Quebec disaster is the fourth freight train accident in Canada under investigation involving crude oil shipments since the beginning of the year.

Harper has called railroad transit “far more environmentally challenging” while trying to persuade the Obama administration to approve the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast. Greenpeace Canada said Sunday that federal safety regulations haven’t kept up with the enormous growth in the shipment of oil by rail.

Officials with the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway said that despite the disaster, they feel transporting oil by rail is safe.

“No matter what mode of transportation you are going to have incidents. That’s been proven. This is an unfortunate incident,” said Joe McGonigle, Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway’s vice president of marketing.

He said the company believes the train’s brakes were the cause. “The train was parked, it was tied up. The brakes were secured. Somehow it got loose,” he said.

McGonigle said there was no reason to suspect any criminal or terror-related activity.

Local fire Chief Denis Lauzon said firefighters in a nearby community were called to a locomotive fire on the same train a few hours before the derailment. McGonigle confirmed the fire department showed up after the first engineer tied up and went to a hotel.

“We know that one of our employees from our engineering department showed up at the same time to assist the fire department. Exactly what they did is being investigated, so the engineer wasn’t the last man to touch that train, we know that, but we’re not sure what happened,” McGonigle said.

Transportation Safety Board investigator Donald Ross said the black box of the locomotive has been recovered, but officials haven’t been able to access much of the site.

“We’ve had a very good safety record for these 10 years,” said Edward Burkhardt, the president and CEO of Rail World Inc., the parent company of Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway. “Well, I think we’ve blown it here.”

Associated Press writer Rob Gillies and Charmaine Noronha contributed from Toronto.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/40-still-missing-in-quebec-oil-tanker-explosion.php?ref=fpb

Horrifying! I hope those who died, died quickly. As I said in another thread, my greatest fear is fire.

You DO know that all Canadian tragedies are because we allow gay marriage, don't you?

god is your copilot...er, engineer, and he is pissed at you heathen Canucks!

8 more bodies found.

Very sad, but not surprising.

Some will probably never be found.

The train's "owner" is an Illinois holding company whose purpose is to privatise railroads for their benefit. I'll wager that their first order of business is cutting costs to the bone no matter how and that the disaster investigation will reveal some very shady practices.

I've been wondering if it isn't a malicious act. A group of kids with nothing better to do thought it would be funny to unhook the thing and see how fast it would go downhill, not thinking about the danger.

The railway owners put the blame on the firefighters who shut down the engine by turning off the circuit breakers after the previous fire. To me, the obvious question is "What caused the previous fire?" It seems to me that firefighters are going to shut down electrical circuits because wire insulation may be burned and can reignite the fire if they're exposed and carrying current - so they did their job. It also seems to me the railway owner is skirting over the fact that the train was left unattended for hours after the fire was put out. Why? With the circuit breakers off and the engine shut down, the air brakes are going to bleed off pressure. This whole thing smells like negligence fueled by cost-cutting.

There was a company employee with the firefighters.
As to the brakes, most air brakes are designed to automatically apply the breaks when there is a loss of pressure. The pressure is needed to release the brakes.

I watched an interview on CBC with a railway engineer for CN and he said the exact opposite. The air pressure applies the brakes and there are secondary mechanical brakes that have to be applied when the engine is shut down or cars are left on sidings. I don't know which is which now...

Maybe train brakes are different to truck brakes. If they are they aren't safe.

Lots more information here ~ Sooz

Tuesday, Jul 9, 2013 05:06 PM CDT
Criminal probe launched in Quebec oil train derailment
Police Inspector Michel Forget offered no details but ruled out a possible act of terrorism.
By Sean Farrell

LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec (AP) — Canadian authorities said Tuesday they have opened a criminal investigation into the fiery wreck of a runaway oil train as the death toll climbed to 15, with dozens more bodies feared buried in the blackened, burned-out ruins of this small town.

Quebec police Inspector Michel Forget said that investigators have “discovered elements” that have led to a criminal probe. He gave no details but ruled out terrorism.

Tangled debris and gas leaks hampered rescue workers’ search for bodies three days after the crash early Saturday that incinerated much of Lac-Megantic’s downtown and raised questions about the safety of transporting oil by rail instead of pipeline.

Investigators zeroed in on whether a blaze on the train a few hours before the disaster set off the deadly chain of events.

The death toll rose with the discovery of two more bodies Tuesday. About three dozen more people were missing.

“This is a very risky environment. We have to secure the safety of those working there. We have some hotspots on the scene. There is some gas,” Quebec Provincial Police Sgt. Benoit Richard said.

The bodies that have been recovered were burned so badly they have yet to be identified.

The Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway train broke loose early Saturday and hurtled downhill through the darkness nearly seven miles (11 kilometers) before jumping the tracks at 63 mph (101 kph) in Lac-Megantic, near the Maine border, investigators said. All but one of the 73 cars were carrying oil. At least five exploded.

The blasts destroyed about 30 buildings, including the Musi-Cafe, a popular bar that was filled at the time, and forced about a third of the town’s 6,000 residents from their homes.

Rail dispatchers had no chance to warn anyone during the runaway train’s 18-minute journey because they didn’t know it was happening themselves, Transportation Safety Board officials said Tuesday. Such warning systems are in place on busier lines but not on secondary lines, said TSB manager Ed Belkaloul.

Resident Gilles Fluet saw the approaching train just before the derailment and explosions.

“It was moving at a hellish speed,” he said. “No lights, no signals, nothing at all. There was no warning. It was a black blob that came out of nowhere.”

He had just said goodbye to friends at the Musi-Cafe and left. “A half-minute later and I wouldn’t be talking to you right now,” he said.

“There are those who ran fast and those who made the right decision. Those who fooled around trying to start their cars to leave the area, there are probably some who burned in them,” Fluet said. “And some who weren’t fast enough to escape the river of fire that ran down to the lake, they were roasted.”

The same train caught fire hours earlier in a nearby town, and the engine was shut down — standard operating procedure dictated by the train’s owners, Nantes Fire Chief Patrick Lambert said.

Edward Burkhardt, president and CEO of the railway’s parent company, Rail World Inc., suggested that shutting off the locomotive to put out the fire might have disabled the brakes.

“An hour or so after the locomotive was shut down, the train rolled away,” he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

Lambert defended the fire department, saying that the blaze was extinguished within about 45 minutes and that’s when firefighters’ involvement ended.

“The people from MMA told us, ‘That’s great — the train is secure, there’s no more fire, there’s nothing anymore, there’s no more danger,’” Lambert said. “We were given our leave, and we left.”

Transportation Safety Board investigator Donald Ross said the locomotive’s black box has been recovered.

“The extent to which (the fire) played into the sequences of events is a focal point of our investigation,” Ross said, but he cautioned that the investigation was still in its early stages.

The accident has thrown a spotlight on MMA’s safety record.

Before the Lac-Megantic accident, the company had 34 derailments since 2003, five of them resulting in damage of more than $100,000, according to the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration.

Burkhardt said the figures were misleading.

“This is the only significant mainline derailment this company has had in the last 10 years. We’ve had, like most railroads, a number of smallish incidents, usually involving accidents in yard trackage and industry trackage,” he told the CBC.

The tanker cars involved in the crash were the DOT-111 type — a staple of the American freight rail fleet whose flaws have been noted as far back as a 1991 safety study. Experts say the DOT-111′s steel shell is so thin that it is prone to puncture in an accident, potentially spilling cargo that can catch fire, explode or contaminate the environment.

The derailment also raised questions about the safety of Canada’s growing practice of transporting oil by train, and is sure to bolster the case for a proposed oil pipeline running from Canada across the U.S. — a project that Canadian officials badly want.

Efforts continued Tuesday to stop waves of crude oil spilled in the disaster from reaching the St. Lawrence River, the backbone of the province’s water supply. Environment Minister Yves-Francois Blanchet said the chances were “very slim.”

Also Tuesday, Lac-Megantic’s mayor said about 1,200 residents were being allowed to return to their homes.

[Sooz says video accessible via end link]

http://www.salon.com/2013/07/09/criminal_probe_launched_in_quebec_oil_train_derailment_ap/

The company has suspended an employee without pay.
Reckon they're looking for a scapegoat?

I'd say they're getting ready to throw him under the bus, but now is not the time.

Reports are emerging that there could be as many as 50 dead.

Sidartha wrote:

I'd say they're getting ready to throw him under the bus, but now is not the time.

Shouldn't that be "throw him under the train". The first time I heard the Chairman of the railway interviewed I thought he sounded pretty realistic and gave a rational explanation for staying in his office rather than visiting Lac-Megantic right off the bat. Now, though, he sounds just like the typical slimeball corporate shyster trying to find somebody to blame his company's shortcomings on. As far as I can tell he didn't win any friends by firing the engineer simply because the police were investigating the accident. I imagine the rest of his employees are saying "WTF!!! Thanks for the support boss!"