Canada: Railway Disaster in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec

47 are missing and are presumed to have perished.

They still have to be very careful. Oil has spilled into the sewer systems etc. and could be ignited if they are not cautious. Recovery of some will take some time due to this problem. They also think that maybe some of the victims may never be found, as their bodies may been vaporized by the extreme fire that engulfed the area.

These reports are not in order of dates.

They are in order of what happened, sort of, time line wise.

So if things seem a bit mixed up do not be surprised.

There is a lot of information on this, so for many of the reports I will just give Quotes of what seems, to be most important parts.

Links to all the reports are provided so you can read more, if you wish and also check out all the other reports at the sites as well. There are many. Each site has numerous reports.

The Engineer/Conductor parked the train in Nantes and went to a hotel for the night.

It all began with the train engine catching fire in Nantes late Friday night, July 5 2013. At about 11:30 p.m. the fire department was called. Some one passing by, saw the fire and called it in.

The Train involved in the disaster:

Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway, which is owned by Rail World Inc

Fire chief angrily denies suggestion his crew played role in deadly Lac-Mégantic train disaster

July 8 2013

NANTES, Que. – The fire chief of this town just outside Lac-Mégantic has angrily denied the suggestion from the owners of the freight train that exploded Saturday that his firefighters played a part in the disaster.

In an interview Monday, Patrick Lambert told the National Post that his men extinguished an engine fire aboard the oil-laden train late Friday night and left the train in the care of two representatives of the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway.
The train, hauling 72 tanker cars filled with crude oil, was parked on the tracks just outside Nantes awaiting a crew change when a passerby reported a fire at about 11:30 p.m. Friday.

Mr. Lambert said he had two fire engines and 12 firefighters at the scene within 17 minutes. They shut down the lead engine to battle the fire, as dictated by the fire department’s and the railway’s protocols, he said.

“That’s the only way we could put the fire out,” he said.

The department had advised MMA’s supervisor in Farnham, Que., of the fire, and two employees who had been in Lac-Mégantic arrived as the blaze was being battled.

Mr. Lambert said it was the fourth such fire on an MMA locomotive in the past eight years. In this case the cause was “a mechanical rupture, either a fuel line or an oil line ruptured,” he said.

It did not take long to extinguish the fire, and at 12:15 a.m. Saturday, the firefighters left.

The MMA employees “inspected the train with us,” he said. “MMA told the leading fire officer that everything was okay, the fire was out, everything was secure, you guys can leave.”

The locomotive’s power remained shut off, and the fire officer advised the railway employees that it could not be moved until the ruptured line was repaired.

“When we left, there was a police officer and two employees of MMA [at the scene],” he said.

Sometime within the next hour, the unmanned train started rolling down the tracks toward Lac-Mégantic, about 12 kilometres away. It is downhill all the way, with an average grade of 6% between Nantes and Lac-Mégantic.

Preliminary data recovered from the locomotive’s data recorder indicate the train was travelling at 101 kilometres per hour when it derailed in the heart of downtown at about 1:15 a.m., Transportation Safety Board investigator in charge, Donald Ross, said in an interview Monday.

Normally the speed limit for a train passing through the town is 16 kilometres-an-hour.

The train jumped the tracks at a curve, and the resulting explosions and inferno destroyed half the downtown. Five bodies have been recovered so far, and police say 40 people are missing.

On Sunday, MMA issued a statement saying the shutdown of the locomotive while it was parked in Nantes “may have resulted in the release of air brakes on the locomotive that was holding the train in place.”

Mr. Lambert said that makes no sense.

“They’re pointing a finger. They’re saying the train left because we shut the engine down, which released the brakes,” he said. “I don’t see how. There’s a train parked there right now and the engine is stopped. So do I have to go down to Mégantic and evacuate the whole city because that train is going to leave?”

He said he is familiar with trains from the factory where he works, and shutting down the locomotive should leave the air brakes engaged as a default.

“I don’t understand how they can say, ‘You guys shut the engine off. That’s what released the brakes.’ It doesn’t work that way. It should be the opposite. MMA did not reinvent the brake system.”

MMA officials were not immediately available for comment.

The train’s three locomotives and 72 cars would have also been equipped with hand brakes, which are engaged manually with a wheel on each car. Mr. Ross told reporters Sunday that investigators will focus on the train’s brakes to learn how the train broke free.

“Certainly the manner in which the train was secured, both air brakes and hand brakes, we’ll be looking very strongly at that,” he said.

Mr. Lambert said he thinks it is unlikely someone would have sabotaged the train between the time his men left and when it began rolling toward Lac-Mégantic.

“I can’t see anyone doing that,” he said, saying that the remote location is hardly on terrorists’ radar.

“When people ask where I come from, I say, ‘Do you know where the pavement stops? OK, well you keep going for another hour.’”
A more likely explanation is some sort of mechanical failure. Source

Also in this report”

Lambert also said his department has put out four locomotive fires, for the company,  over the past nine years. For entire story go HERE

This was not the first time an engine caught fire.
When the fire department left there were Two MMA employee’s and a Police officer still at the site of the train.  Firefighters from Nantes put out the flames and left the train in the care of  the MMA crew at 12:15 a.m.

Nantes is uphill and West of Lac-Mégantic. Approximately  7 k  to 13 k between the two. All the news reports vary on this fact.

Preliminary data recovered from the locomotive’s data recorder indicate the train was travelling at 101 kilometres per hour when it derailed in the heart of downtown at about 1:15 a.m., Transportation Safety Board investigator in charge, Donald Ross, said in an interview Monday.
Normally the speed limit for a train passing through the town is 16 kilometres-an-hour.

Map of Rail Line

Just after 1 a.m. approximately 1 hour after the fire department left the crew, the run away train hit.

This video has the beginning shortly after the train hit and some from latter

Shocking new Lac-Mégantic explosion video emerges

Lac-Mégantic after the fires were under control

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

For more Photos go HERE

There are two ways to shut down a train engine: There’s an emergency lever on the outside of the locomotive that anyone wandering by could access. Or, there are a number of levers and buttons inside the unlocked cabin. For entire story go HERE

Anyone walking about could turn off the engine or even worse steal the train to go for a joy ride. Now if you left your car outside a store, in downtown Toronto, with your doors unlocked, the engine running and it was stolen, what would the insurance company say I wonder? 

Normally, the train would be secured by hand and air brakes.

Joe McGonigle, Montreal, Maine & Atlantic’s vice-president of marketing, 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. For the entire story go HERE

One has to ask was the train ever left alone, unsupervised?

There were apparently 5 engines and 72 tanker cars. All toll.

Some of the tanker cars also came uncoupled and were latter retrieved.

The train cars carrying crude oil that remained attached to the train engine sit in the train tracks about 10 kilometres north-west of Lac-Mégantic, which is 100 kilometres east of Sherbrooke on Sunday, July 7, 2013. A train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded in the heart of the small town on Saturday. Photograph by: Dario Ayala , The Gazette

MONTREAL — At a time when train shipments of crude oil are expected to skyrocket in Canada, the federal government is cutting funding for Transport Canada, the country’s transportation regulator, by almost 30 per cent, down to $1.5 billion, according to government spending estimates for 2012-13 and 2013-14.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Montreal, Maine & Atlantic, the company whose 72-car train derailed and exploded in Lac-Mégantic, has spilled hazardous materials seven times since 2000. For entire story go HERE

The train involved in the Lac-Mégantic accident was carrying 72 tankers filled with thousands of litres of fuel each.

Approximately 230,000 barrels of oil are transported by rail in North America every day, according to the Railway Association of Canada.

The RAC estimates that 99.99 per cent all “dangerous goods” rail shipments reach their destination without any spills caused by accidents or derailments.

There were 588 train derailments in Canada in 2011 alone, according to the Canada Safety Council. For entire story go HERE

Where the Oil came from

Some of the oil shipped by rail in Canada is not coming from the oil sands, but from the Bakken shale gas formation, a currently booming 520,000-square-kilometre oil and natural gas deposit in North Dakota and Montana, which produces more than 700,000 barrels of oil daily.

The light crude oil on board the Maine, Montreal and Atlantic Railway train that exploded in Lac-Mégantic was en-route from the Bakken reserves to an Irving Oil refinery in Saint John, N.B., the company said on Sunday. July 7 2013 For entire story go HERE

A derailed train carrying a shipment of crude oil that exploded in Lac-Mégantic, Que. killing at least five people was destined for a Saint John, N.B. refinery.

Irving Oil, the company that owns the Saint John refinery, issued a statement after confirming the shipment was bound for its facility.

In recent years, much of the oil that comes from the western provinces and is processed at the Saint John refinery is delivered by train. For entire story go HERE

Someone should ask the owners, what type of security, if any, is at the rail yard, where the train was parked. To date it seems there have been no reports on if anyone was there to watch over a train engine that was left running with 72 tanks of oil behind it.

Report from July 5 1013 Lac-Mégantic: Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway chairman certain train that exploded was tampered with

A passer by saw the fire and reported it to the fire department, not some one at the rail yard working there. Could it be no one, was there at all, when the fire in the engine started?

Edward A. Burkhardt is President of Rail World, Inc., of Chicago, Illinois, a railroad management and consulting company he formed in 1999.  He also serves as President of Rail World Holdings LLC, which holds railway investments worldwide.

Could one of them perhaps be in your country?

Rail World Organization Chart

Lac-Mégantic residents recall moment of explosion

 

Death toll hits 15 in Lac-Mégantic as criminal probe launched

Om June 11 2013

MMA also had another accident in Frontenac just east of Lac-Mégantic. A 13 000 litre diesel spill

As early as 1994, regulators at the Transportation Safety Board wrote that this type of tanker car had a flawed design and that they have a “high incidence of tank integrity failure” during accidents.

As noted HERE

The report below is from 2007

Deregulation a disaster for rail safety: report

 May 29, 2007 

The Canada Safety Council is calling Canada’s rail system a disaster waiting to happen, and it blames deregulation for the mess.

The council’s Emile Therien told CTV News that one possible result could be the “major evacuation of a major urban area … and all the attendant cost that goes along with that.”

To ward that off, “CSC strongly urges the government to reinstitute the authority of Transport Canada,” said the council’s report, obtained Monday by CTV News.

Related Links

• W-FIVE – Off The Rails
• W-FIVE – Track Record

The CSC said the move to deregulation “allows rail companies to regulate themselves, removing the federal government’s ability to protect Canadians and their environment, and allowing the industry to hide critical safety information from the public.”

B.C. New Democrat MP Peter Julian added his voice to the criticism.

“Since self-managed safety was put into place, it has been a disaster for Canadians. Lives have been lost; we’ve seen environmental devastation,” he said.

Safety Management Systems (SMS) came into force in 1999 after the Liberal government of the day amended the Railway Safety Act.

The policy change ended the oversight role of Transport Canada.

“CSC believes that SMS allows rail companies to regulate themselves, removing the federal government’s ability to protect Canadians and their environment, and allowing the industry to hide critical safety information from the public,” the report said.

CTV’s W-FIVE has reported on serious problems within Canada’s rail system, including a large jump in derailments in 2005.

The CSC report noted W-FIVE’s finding that in 2005, there were 103 main-track derailments for one “major rail company” in 2005 — an average of one every 3.5 days. The report termed that “a truly dismal safety record.” W-FIVE named CN Rail as the company in its report.

One such incident was the derailment near Lake Wabamun, Alta., which led to the spill of oil and wood preservatives into the popular recreational lake.

Two days later, another CN train derailed over the Cheakamus River just outside Squamish, B.C., dumping more than 40,000 litres of caustic soda.

And in 2006, a derailment in B.C. left two train crew members dead.

Industry reaction

However, the industry argues that one year doesn’t tell the story.

Cliff MacKay of the Railway Association of Canada agrees there was a spate of incidents in 2005, but argue many were linked to extraordinary factors like weather events and labour disruptions.

“But if you look at the numbers overall, the numbers have been progressively improving,” he said.

CN Rail, which has seen some of the worst incidents, rejected the CSC report outright.

“They didn’t do their homework,” said spokesperson Mark Hallman, adding it was based on a “faulty, biased” report by W-FIVE.

The CSC report is one of many that will end up on the desk of Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon.

“If there was not a problem … we would not have the panel struck by the minister to really look into safety in the railroad industry,” Therien said on CTV’s Canada AM.

The government isn’t planning to look at any changes to rail safety until the end of 2008. The safety council said the problem is urgent and action is needed now.

Therien is calling on Transport Canada to get involved again as the railway regulator.

“They’ve got to become effective to get back into that particular game,” he said Tuesday.

“The railroads cannot be allowed to review or vet the safety standards, which are really established by Transport Canada,” he said.

With a report from CTV’s Graham Richardson Source

A few Question we all should think about.

Was this disaster in Quebec preventable?

Are there people/security watching over rail yards?

Is the equipment used safe and well maintained?

Are all employees well trained?

Are owners/operators putting profit before safety?

Do you think deregulation has made rail ways more dangerous?

Train car ammonia leak forces evacuation in small Ontario town on Monday July 8 2013 No one was hurt. This does also point to safety concerns however.

Information on how to donate to the victims of this horrific disaster. They will need all the help they can get.

Saskatchewan mayors worry about rail lines

Saskatoon mayor calls for rail lines to be moved

Rail emergencies raise concern over Sudbury tracks

Manitoba town wants to know what rail cars are carrying

July 10 2013 Update

The owner is attempting to blame the fire department for the disaster as they shut down the engine to put out the fire in Nantes. He said this during the video interview with CBC.

MMA, which is headquartered in Chicago, has a long history of accidents in Canada, according to Transportation Safety Board data, which shows 129 accidents, including 77 derailments — some of them minor — since 2003. For entire story and video of interview go HERE

To Edward A. Burkhardt I am sorry to say, but your people were left at the scene of the fire, to take care of things, after the fire department left. It was the companies responsibility to make sure the train was secure. It is the companies job to make sure all their trains are safe and secure at all times.

A new questions. What other cargo, was on the train other then oil?

How much diesel was present? I am thinking the train was being hauled by diesel engines. Diesel is more volatile then crude oil. Five engines would need a great deal to operate. Could be that is what sparked the explosions? What caused the fire in the lead engine?

Engines can have a fuel capacity of 2,900 gallons as noted HERE

Or in this type of engine fuel capacity 1,800 gallons noted HERE

Both of those engines are from Rail Wold Inc 

Rail World Inc, ownes MMA. Odds are they supply the engines for MMA.

Multiply either or by 5 and you have a whole lot of flammable fuel.

Add to that if the engines that went off the track hit a car, truck or whatever, it would make it even more problematic.

July 10 2013 Report

Burkhardt said Tuesday he hadn’t gone to the stricken community before because company representatives, including president Robert Grindrod, were already there.

Grindrod acknowledged the company likely shares some of the blame for the catastrophe.

“But we can’t say how much blame. Typically major events like this are a combination of factors and we don’t know what all the factors are yet.”

He said there was nothing unusual about having a train sitting unattended as it was when a small fire broke out requiring the intervention of the Nantes fire department. The derailment in Lac-Megantic happened shortly afterward. For entire story go HERE

Recent Photos of aftermath

Lac Megantic explosion: Ottawa approved having only one engineer on ill-fated train

From  July 09 2013

By Les Whittington Ottawa Bureau reporter, Liam Casey GTA, Jessica McDiarmid News reporter, Bruce Campion-Smith Parliament Hill,

OTTAWA—The rail company whose 73-car train devastated a Quebec town when it derailed convinced the federal government last year that it could safely operate trains with only one engineer on board, officials disclosed Tuesday.

Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway (MMA) got the green light from Transport Canada for the reduced staffing in 2012.

“They had to meet with Transport Canada and demonstrate to us that they could do it safely,” said Luc Bourdon, director general of rail safety in Transport Canada. For entire story go HERE

What happens if the engineer gets sick, hurt, dies or passes out for some reason? In those events, who drives the train? No one.

The more I find the less impressed I am.

There seems to be a lot of pencil pushers, making stupid decisions.

In the name of profit no less.

A select few in the US who care. I am actually shocked the press even covered this.

Activists rally at Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway Headquarters

This is a comparison with all US railways. Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway and Its Safety Record  MMA does not rate well.

Update July 12 2013

Lac-Mégantic marks Canada’s 7th runaway train since 2006

Lac-Mégantic prepares vigil to mark 1 week since derailment

A few interviews audio only. Valuable information  on brakes, safety procedures etc..

Unattended trains not against the rules: Transport Canada

Not against the rules. Well it should be against the rules.

Lac-Mégantic locals paint picture of a terrified train driver

Details of engineer moving tankers away from train inferno 

Point finger at MMA, not Harding: rail expert

Seven more Victims Identified

Vigils across Quebec tonight for Lac-Mégantic

Auction and concert to support Lac-Megantic

Update July 13 2013

Here is a video taken less, then two days after the tragedy.

Apparently this train was parked up on a hill just above Lac-Mégantic, It sat there for a couple of days, running, doors unlocked, unattended. Someone was angry it was left there like the one that that destroyed the town and caused the deaths of so many.

I do believe they complained to the authorities and had the train moved. The train left late on the July 8th.

They were not sure where it went. The video was posted July 7.

I took two captures that show the MMA on the side of the green lead engine and the brick red car just behind it.

Lead Engine

Brick Red Car behind Lead Engine

The first Video also shows  Lac-Mégantic, to the left of the tracks.

Lac-Mégantic at a distance, from the tracks, where train is parked

The Video will have all of the above photos in it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGg0tW8PgTc

Update July 12 2013

Another 5 Lac-Mégantic victims found, say police

Apparently this is an engine that made it threw

The Transportation Safety Board authorities examine the locomotive from which the derailed tanker cars detached. Source

Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers guard the main locomotive involved in a July 6 fatal train derailment and explosion in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, Tuesday, July 9, 2013. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jacques Boissinot) Source

I have not been able to find anything else out, about the 5 Engines.

Canada Transportation Safety Board

July 15 2013 Updates

Lac-Megantic residents seeking permission for class-action lawsuit

Lac Megantic: Railway’s history of cost-cutting A freight train derailment and explosion in Wisconsin in 1996 foreshadowed the Quebec inferno.

July 17 Update

Former MMA employee quit company over safety concerns

A former Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Rail employee quit the company in 2007. He says he warned to company and American politicians that a disaster like the Lac Megantic accident would happen if they switched to one-man only operations. To listen to the interview go HERE

Reporters get a close up view of the after math.

Go HERE and HERE

July 18 2013 Update

Lac Megantic explosion: Railroads prepare for Transport Canada rule changes

CN and CP tighten safety rules after Lac-Mégantic disaster

Railway involved in Lac-Mégantic disaster lays off 19

Size of Lac Megantic oil spill remains a company secret

Wed Jul 17 2013

The company cleaning the oil out of the Chaudière River in Lac-Mégantic will not say how much they have removed, citing a confidentiality agreement with the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway

Update July 19 2013

Lac-Mégantic investigators seek urgent rail safety review

MMA train in minor derailment in Quebec Montreal, Maine & Atlantic, the company involved in the Lac-Mégantic disaster, experienced a minor derailment Thursday in Farnham, Que.

Quebec coroner’s office updates [French only]

The below page is dedicated to all those who perished.

In Memory of those who perished in Lac-Mégantic

All new Updates will be at the link below

Canada: Railway Disaster in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec Part 2

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