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'Lac-Megantic is like a war zone': 13 dead and at least 50 missing in Quebec as dangerous conditions hamper rescue teams at Canada train blast site

Authorities fear death toll will soar once they're able to reach the hardest-hit areas

John Hall
Monday 08 July 2013 07:19 BST
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At least 50 people remain missing a day after a train derailed in Quebec, ploughing into the city's busy downtown district and killing 13 people.

Quebec police said late on Monday that they had so far recovered 13 bodies from the blackened rubble of what was once the historic downtown strip.

The coroner's office asked relatives of the missing to bring in brushes, combs and razors so specialists could extract DNA samples from strands of hair.

With the fires now out and the authorities finally able to access the epicentre of the blasts, the death toll is expected to climb and many of the town's evacuated residents will finally be allowed back to assess the damage.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper compared the area to a war zone and said about 30 buildings were incinerated.

Click here to view a map of the disaster zone

By Monday evening, the emergency crews had finally reached the Musi-Cafe, a downtown bar near the blasts epicentre. A band was performing that night and the building was packed with people, eyewitnesses told Reuters.

The train's 72 oil-filled tanker cars somehow came loose early Saturday morning, sped downhill nearly seven miles (11 kilometers) into the town, derailed and began exploding one by one. At least five exploded.

The eruptions 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. The district is a popular area packed with bars that often bustles on summer weekend nights. Police said the first explosion tore through the town shortly after 1am local time. Fire then spread to several homes.

Two tanker cars were burning Sunday morning, and authorities were still worried about them Sunday evening. Local Fire Chief Denis Lauzon said firefighters were staying 500 feet (150 meters) from the tankers, which were being doused with water and foam to keep them from overheating.

“This is an unbelievable disaster,” said Harper, who toured the town Sunday. “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 growing number of trains carrying crude oil in Canada and the United States had raised concerns of a major derailment.

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

Local Anne-Julie Huot, 27, said at least five friends and about 20 acquaintances remained unaccounted for. She said she was lucky to be working that night, otherwise she likely would have been at a popular bar that was leveled in the blast.

“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. It's the worst thing I can imagine.”

About a third of the community of 6,000 was forced out of their homes. The town is about 155 miles (250 kilometers) east of Montreal and just west of the Maine border.

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.

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.

“We've had a very good safety record for these 10 years,” Burkhardt said. “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.

“Somehow those brakes were released, and that's what is going to be investigated,” McGonigle said in a telephone interview Sunday. “ 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 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. McGonigle confirmed the fire department showed up after the first engineer tied up and went to a local hotel. Someone later 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.

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 much of the 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 just 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.

“We think it is safe. We think we have a safe operation,” McGonigle said of carrying oil by rail. “No matter what mode of transportation you are going to have incidents. That's been proven. This is an unfortunate incident.”

Additional reporting Associated Press

Video: Canada train crash toll rises

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