Anger Mounts in Quebec Town as Tanker Crash Deaths Rise

[Purveyor]

By Lauren S Murphy, Hugo Miller and Theophilos Argitis - Jul 9, 2013

As the death toll from a train that exploded in Lac-Megantic, Quebec more than doubled to 13, residents faced an agonizing wait to identify the remains of their loved ones amid growing controversy over the cause of the disaster.

Thirteen people are now confirmed dead, up from five yesterday, Lt. Michel Brunet, a spokesman with the Surete du Quebec provincial police, said on Canadian television yesterday. Brunet also raised the number of missing including confirmed deaths to 50 from 40.

The Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway Ltd. train carrying 72 carloads of crude oil crashed and burst into flames early Saturday near the center of Lac-Megantic, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) east of Montreal, and 10 miles from the U.S. border with Maine.

“It’s going to be a challenge to make positive identifications because the fire was so intense,” Genevieve Guilbault, a spokeswoman for the Quebec coroner’s office, said by phone from the town last night. “We are only at the beginning of the investigation. We are spending all our time looking for bodies at the site.”

Guilbault said the coroner’s office has asked families to bring in hats, razors, toothbrushes and hairbrushes to help with the identification of the bodies using hair samples.

MORE...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-08/quebec-town-faces-water-contamination-after-train-wreck.html

[Baclava]

1. looks like a chain of human errors occured

Based on Reuters interviews with witnesses, fire services and the head of the train company, the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway (MMA), a tale emerges of how the brakes on a train parked on a slope were released leading to tragedy.

Engineer secured the train at 11:25 p.m. on Friday, setting the air brakes and hand brakes... set the brakes on all five locomotives at the front of the train, as well as brakes on a number of cars, in line with company policy. Four of the train's engines were switched off, but the front locomotive was left on to power the airbrakes. The engineer then retired to a hotel in Lac-Megantic.

Soon after, things started to go wrong. Nantes Fire Chief Patrick Lambert said the fire department got a call about a blaze on one of the locomotives at 11:30 p.m. He said the fire was likely caused by a broken fuel or oil line.

Firefighters reached the scene within seven minutes.

"It was a good sized fire, but it was contained in the motor of the train," "By 12:12, the fire was completely out."

But as they extinguished the fire, the 12 volunteer firemen also switched off the locomotive, in line with their own protocols, to prevent fuel from circulating into the flames.

One of the many unknowns in the story is precisely what happened next.

the fire department contacted the railway's regional office in Farnham, Quebec, and spoke to the dispatcher. "We told them what we did and how we did it," Lambert said. "There was no discussion of the brakes at that time. We were there for the train fire. As for the inspection of the train after the fact, that was up to them."

It was not known what the dispatcher did after receiving the call... not sure if the dispatcher was told that the engine had been shut down, or what the dispatcher did after receiving the call. The company is still investigating the incident, as are Canadian authorities.


http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/09/us-train-narrative-insight-idUSBRE96801Q20130709

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Thank you for that info.

Puzzle pieces are coming together now.

[pinboy3niner]

3. The Nantes Fire Chief also said two MMA employees arrived before firefighters left

It's possible that the MMA dispatcher had those employees sent to the scene.

No employees from the train company were at the scene when the fire crew arrived.

“They told me it’s normal during a shift change,” Lambert said, adding that by the time his men were done putting out the fire at 12:13 a.m., two MMA employees had arrived.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Nantes+fire+chief+confirms+late+night+fire+before/8631340/story.html

[thefool_wa]

4. I know they will investigate it thoroughly

But this seems like a tragically unavoidable accident considering the time frame from reporting of the engine fire to the train rolling down the track (about 45m).

Contacting the engineer immediately and directly may have helped (i really want to believe they were trying), but if it came down to needing to instruct them over the phone (which seems the only likely scenario to prevent this) who knows if the firefighters could have gotten everything running properly before the thing started to slide. And if that inexperienced firefighter was unable to control the train once it was on its way, that's a whole 'nother level of liability for the FD and rail company.

This whole situation is horribly tragic.

I do have to wonder though...How did the engineer get from the siding into town? If there was only 5 minutes between him stopping and the fire being reported...don't you think he would have seen or smelled something as he was departing? Or wouldn't he have PASSED the fire engines headed back out to the rail siding?

I'm not saying it was his fault or anything...the timing is just so tight it seems like there should have been clues that he was needed back at his engine.