Train derails, explodes in Canada

[Hum]

Quebec -- Tank cars filled with crude oil continue to burn and the death toll is expected to rise 36 hours after a runaway train exploded in a small Canadian town, local police said Sunday.

At least five people were killed and around 40 people are listed as missing in the tiny lakeside town of Lac-Megantic, Quebec, local police spokesman Lt. Michel Brunet said Sunday. The burned bodies have been sent to Montreal for identification. Brunet said "we know that there will be many more" deaths.

Firefighters are still working to extinguish two burning tank cars at risk of exploding, said Lac-Megantic Fire Chief Denis Lauzon. Firefighters have to stay 500 feet away from the tankers still on fire.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper toured the town Sunday and expressed sympathy for its residents.

"It looks like a war zone here," Harper said in a news conference outside Polyvalente Montignac High School, the main staging area for search-and-rescue efforts.

"A beautiful downtown here has been destroyed," he said. "There's going to be a need for substantial reconstruction."

Harper would not comment on the specifics of the disaster except that he expected information "about why this occurred" to lead to a police investigation.

"I've heard things that concern me greatly," he said. "There will be investigations that will point to guilty or responsible people."

The train, pulling more than 70 tankers of crude oil, had been parked for the night 7 miles away from Lac-Megantic, according to a statement from the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway. It slipped downhill, derailed, then crashed into downtown, leveling dozens of homes and buildings. Tankers exploded, sending thick plumes of smoke into the night sky.

Witnesses told the CBC they heard five or six explosions.

One witness saw the first train tanker tip over and yelled "run, run!" as he dashed toward the lake of the same name as the town. He told CBC the flames chased him to the edge of the water.

"The fire was moving so quickly," he said. "We saw balls of fire shooting out onto the water."

more

[LaP]

It's written Lac-M?gantic ;)

 

Sad story hope some of the 40 people missing are still alive somewhere.

[Hum]

I reckon we need that oil pipeline, eh ?

[papercut2008uk]

what i want to know is how on earth, with today's safety features for trains/locos and their cargo, the safety systems to prevent this exact thing from happening, how does a runaway train get to this point? surly the breaks would have stopped it? surly the safety monitors would have put on the emergency brakes on the loco and all carriages? 

[Lewism]

About 30 buildings are reduced to ashes.

 

 

Tanker exploding:

 

[DocM]

I reckon we need that oil pipeline, eh ?

Ya think?

If it was hauling crude then the light volatiles were still in the brew and the tanks were pressure vessels. One small fire, say from sparks or overheated brakes, heats the tank(s) enough to rupture then BOOM!!

The question has to be if this was intentional, a derailment either from a prank or a terrorist act. Such terrorist attacks on Canadian trains have been tried before, the most recent being last April, and a passenger, chemical, nuclear fuel, gas or oil shipment would be the perfect targets.

[Lewism]

The train was parked in a town 10 miles away on top of a hill. There was a fire in the locomotive. After it was cleared out, the brakes failed (unknown reason ATM) and the train started rolling. It is a 10 mile hill and it derailed in a curb downtown at around 60 miles per hour (gravity did that!) when the speed limit was 10.

[DocM]

Good intel would reveal an obvious target of opportunity like that hill, and the initial fire could have been a setup or inside job - rail yard security is notoriously poor. Never say never.

[Shiranui]

what i want to know is how on earth, with today's safety features for trains/locos and their cargo, the safety systems to prevent this exact thing from happening, how does a runaway train get to this point? surly the breaks would have stopped it? surly the safety monitors would have put on the emergency brakes on the loco and all carriages? 

 

A post like this is enough to turn anyone surly.

[+LogicalApex MVC]

Good intel would reveal an obvious target of opportunity like that hill, and the initial fire could have been a setup or inside job - rail yard security is notoriously poor. Never say never.

 

 

The official report will determine the cause of the derailment and subsequent explosion, but any and everything isn't a terrorist attack. We (the US, Canada, and the world) have had train derailments and catastrophic incidents for almost as long as we have had trains. Lets wait for the investigation to complete before we start labeling it as some terrorist incident that is probably isn't.

[cork1958]

There goes the gas prices back up now!!

[DocM]

[Tomoko]

Looks like a war zone. :(

[LittleNeutrino Veteran]

sounds like this weekend is just not a good day for commercial transportation. 

[DocM]

Plane, train, ?

In ER's they have a saying for high casualty shifts;

Incoming staff: "how was it?"

Outgoing staff: "a plane hit a train, and it hit a bus."

Stay off buses.

[matt4pack]

If there would have been locomotives on both ends of the train I think this would have been prevented.

[DocM]

True that on the road, but odds are it was a switching engine which is used within the yard to move cars around and assemble them for a run. AKA a "donkey."

[Hum]

Criminal probe in Quebec oil train derailment

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

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

Investigators zeroed in on whether a fire on the train a few hours before the disaster set off a deadly chain of events that has raised questions about the safety of transporting oil in North America by rail instead of pipeline.

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

 

http://news.yahoo.com/criminal-probe-quebec-oil-train-derailment-213336218.html

I reckon we need that oil pipeline, eh ? ;)

 

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

[HawkMan]

If there would have been locomotives on both ends of the train I think this would have been prevented.

 

Technically trains are supposed to be designed with brakes on every car, connected to the engine via pneumatics. and they're supposed to work on positive, pressure, ie, you need the generator on the train engine to created pressure to release the breaks. so if the engine fails, a hose is disconnected or the break system on the enigne fails(like it it here supposedly) all the cars would lose pressure and the brakes would engage. 

 

supposedly opposite of how trucks work I believe.