Canada train derailment (1 Viewer)

[zombiegirl]

“We can’t give out any information on what’s happening right now because the firemen haven’t been able to get close.”
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said four pressurized tank cars blew up after the train, which had 73 cars in all, went off the rails. Pictures taken in the moments after the explosion showed a gigantic fireball rising high into the night sky. Residents told reporters they had heard five or six blasts.
Nearly 10 hours after the derailment, one rail car was still burning.
Fire officials said they feared more of the tanker cars were at risk of exploding. About 30 buildings in the town center were destroyed, some by the initial blast and others by the subsequent fire, they said.
The police imposed a half-mile security zone around the blast site and evacuated about 1,000 people from their homes.
“When you see the center of your town almost destroyed, you’ll understand that we’re asking ourselves how we are going to get through this event,” a tearful Ms. Roy-Laroche said at a televised news briefing.
Lac-Mégantic is part of the Eastern Townships region of Quebec, an area popular with tourists that is close to the Maine and Vermont borders.
Huge clouds of thick black smoke were still rising from the center of Lac-Mégantic several hours after the disaster.
Fire officials said they had asked for help from fire services in the United States. About 20 fire engines were fighting the blaze.
The police said some tanker cars had spilled their contents into the river that runs through the town.
“I can say absolutely nothing about victims,” said a police spokesman, Michel Brunet. “We’ve been told about people who are not answering their phones, but you have to understand that there are people who are out of town and on holiday.”
The train had been parked and the conductor was not aboard when “somehow, the train got released,” said Joseph McGonigle, a vice president of the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway.

“We’re not sure what happened, but the engineer did everything by the book,” Mr. McGonigle said. “He had parked the train and was waiting for his relief.”

 

[zombiegirl]

 

[Bethy 🔥]

Thats a Horrific exsplosion caught on video Thanks 4 the great pics and video Zombiegirl

 

[Bethy 🔥]

Thats a Horrific exsplosion caught on video Thanks 4 the great pics and video Zombiegirl

Oh please keep us updated with any new info

 

[zombiegirl]

Oh please keep us updated with any new info

thanks =). the updates I'm reading so far reported 60 missing and 1 death.

I'll try my best with the updates

 

[zombiegirl]

looks like the end of the world

 

[Bethy 🔥]

thanks =). the updates I'm reading so far reported 60 missing and 1 death.

I'll try my best with the updates

This is soo sad Thanks 4 the info/updat

 

[Bethy 🔥]

looks like the end of the world

Wow Im speechless..

 

[Barry McCockinner]

A fire like that would never last where I'm at. All this damn rain would put it out in a minute.

Thanks for the post and updates

 

[zombiegirl]

does anyone know how many derailments there been in Canada? some people said there were a couple and that the derailments are pretty suspious. I remember one derailment but that's it.

 

[zombiegirl]

death toll increased to 3

 

[zombiegirl]

death toll now 13

I feel like a newscaster...

 

[Brutaltruth]

28 dead now.

 

[Animal Mother]

 

[zombiegirl]

28 dead now.

jeeze =/. thanks for the update

 

[DeathHand]

Update

Recovering Bodies in Lac-Megantic a Daunting Task​

July 16, 2013

The Canadian Press

MONTREAL – Forget about the glamour suggested by such TV shows as “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and their high-tech gizmos. The most vital tools in Lac-Megantic include keen eyes, expertise and persistence.

Nothing is left to chance in the work to bring the dead back to their loved ones.

“Those poor guys are on their hands and knees, wading through soot,” said Dr. Bill Inkster, an identification specialist with the British Columbia coroner’s office.

“They look like 17th century coal miners by now, I’m sure, and brushing ashes (away) with paint brushes,” he said in a telephone interview from Burnaby. “It’s just plain hard work – meticulous, slow.”

Search and rescue teams including specially trained police, firefighters and forensic anthropologists have been combing the debris in staggering heat for more than a week since Canada’s worst railway disaster, so far resulting in the recovery of 37 bodies.

Of those, 11 have been identified at this point.

When searchers believe they’ve found remains a forensic anthropologist, such as seen in the TV show “Bones,” is called in to determine it is in fact a body. Afterward, the coroner is notified so the process of removing it, then identifying it, can begin.

Crews have an array of equipment at their disposal.

Some is as simple as a basic shovel or a brush. In other cases, it can involve huge construction excavators that can gingerly pick apart buildings making it safe for search crews to enter.

A chunk of Lac-Megantic’s downtown core, which was dotted with bars, stores and homes, was obliterated early on the morning of July 6 when a runaway train loaded with oil derailed and exploded.

A tense vigil has been maintained in the days since as relatives and friends await word of their loved ones, now mainly to confirm their worst fears.

“The initial search is beyond comprehension,” said Inkster, who was part of the team of specialists that worked in Thailand in the wake of the 2004 tsunami.

“It’s going to be incredibly complex.”

“The approach that’s going to be taken is very similar to an archeological excavation, where you go through layer by layer, sorting and screening and carefully removing each level of debris searching for the human remains that may be embedded within,” Tracy Rogers said.

Rogers, who helped identify remains found at the notorious B.C. pig farm of serial killer Robert Pickton in 2002-2003, said crews working in Lac-Megantic have to proceed carefully – not just to preserve remains and evidence but to protect themselves.

“They’ve got toxic areas, they’ve got hot spots. They’ve got all sorts of different things they have to address that’s important for the safety of the searchers. When you have something like buildings going down, you get levels and levels of debris.”

While the digging goes on, other experts come at the task from a different angle.

Police, for example, build a detailed missing-person profile that looks not only at the person’s description but habits, such as where they were last seen or had they frequented spots in the disaster zone such as a favourite bar.

Authorities have also urged families of the missing to provide such things as tooth and hair brushes so they could get DNA samples.

Source

 

[DeathHand]

does anyone know how many derailments there been in Canada? some people said there were a couple and that the derailments are pretty suspious. I remember one derailment but that's it.

I'm not sure of the exact number of derailments in Canada - train crashes in Canada date back to the 1800's and up to modern times with this recent crash in Montreal - but we've had our share of them.

Here's a list of Canada's 10 Worst Derailments (excluding the Montreal crash of July 2013):

1. St-Hilaire train disaster (June 29, 1864): With an estimated 99 casualties, it still stands as Canada’s deadliest train accident. A Grand Trunk train with more than 350 passengers was travelling from Quebec City to Montreal when it failed to stop as it approached a bridge over the Rivière Richelieu near today’s Mont-St-Hilaire, Que. Both the conductor and the engineer failed to see the red light more than a kilometre ahead warning the train that the bridge was raised to allow boats to pass through. It plunged into the river below. Many of the passengers aboard were newly arrived German and Polish immigrants.

2. Mississauga train derailment (Nov. 10, 1979): More than 250,000 residents in suburban Toronto were forced from their homes when a freight train carrying caustic, explosive and poisonous chemicals derailed near the intersection of Dundas Street and Mavis Road in Mississauga, Ont., just before midnight. Several tank cars filled with propane exploded, while other tankers spilled styrene, toluene, caustic soda, and chlorine onto the tracks and into the air. Fearful that the explosions and fire could trigger a deadly chlorine gas cloud, authorities ordered a massive evacuation. Amazingly, no injuries were reported. The derailment left the city deserted for several days. The scale of the evacuation was only surpassed in 2005 when hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana.

3. Hinton train disaster (Feb. 8, 1986): Travelling at 96 km/h at the time of impact, the head-on collision between a Canadian National Railway freight train and a Via Rail passenger train left 23 dead and 95 injured. A commission of inquiry concluded the CN employees ignored signals to stop and failed to “follow established railway operating rules.” It also condemned CN’s “railroader” culture that ignored safety regulations, which were beefed up in the aftermath of the crash.

4. Baptiste Creek train collision (Oct. 27, 1854): It was early morning when an express passenger train of the Great Western Railway—running more than five hours late—emerged from thick fog at Baptiste Creek, Ont., and collided with a 15-car gravel train repairing the track. The night watchman at the Baptiste Creek station advised the engineer of the gravel train that the passenger train had already passed and that it was safe to travel onto the main line. The accident killed 52 and injured 48 others. At the time it was the worst rail disaster in North America.

5. Dugald train disaster (Sept. 1, 1947): A passenger train headed westbound crashed into an eastbound train at the Dugald, Man., station because it failed to heed Canadian National Railway procedure and turn onto a siding. Thirty-one lives were lost. Onboard were vacationers from the Minaki region of northwestern Ontario. Due to the strict rationing of steel during the Second World War, old wooden passenger cars had been kept in service. Most of the victims died in the resulting fire, fed by the old cars’ gas illumination.

6. Spanish River derailment (Jan. 21, 1910): The combination of excessive speed and a faulty rail caused the CPR passenger train No. 7 to jump the tracks as it approached the railway crossing at the Spanish River west of Sudbury. Both the first-class coach and dining car plunged into the icy river while others careened down the embankment. The derailment killed 43.

7. Canoe River train accident (Nov. 21, 1950): A westbound train carrying Canadian troops en route to training for the Korean War collided with an eastbound train near Canoe River, B.C. The crash cost 17 soldiers their lives as well as the two-man locomotive crew from each train. CNR telegraph operator Alfred “Jack” Atherton was charged with manslaughter for allegedly sending an incomplete message to the troop train regard-ing the location of the other train. Atherton, who was defended by John Diefenbaker, then a criminal lawyer, was found not guilty.

8. Desjardins Canal train disaster (March 12, 1857): A broken axle on the engine caused the Great Western passenger train to leave the tracks and crash through the bridge deck of a timber suspension bridge, into the Desjardin Canal outside Hamilton. A workman at the Hamilton station who witnessed the accident reported he “saw the steam suddenly stop, and a sort of dust arise. In a second there was no train to be seen.” The derailment killed 59 people and injured 18 others. (I used to drive by this spot everyday when commuting from Hamilton to Toronto and back. A new bridge was built above the old one that the train had derailed from and folks say that the gorge part of the canal is haunted).

9. Almonte troop and passenger train collision (Dec. 27, 1942): As a late-arriving Sunday night local train sat at the station in Almonte, Ont., a troop train from Red Deer, Alta., carrying soldiers bound for Britain, crashed into the rear cars, which were made of wood, killing 39 people and injuring more than 200. Fearing he would be blamed for the collision, John Howard, conductor of the troop train, committed suicide by jumping into the Rideau River. As a result of the crash, the Board of Transport recommended that a protection signal west of Almonte be erected.

10. Wanstead train disaster (Dec. 27, 1902): In an effort to make up lost time due to poor visibility and heavy travel, the westbound Pacific express train No. 5 of the Grand Trunk line increased its speed as it approached the station at Wanstead, Ont. At the same time a lumbering freight train was slowly moving eastbound, having been told to pull into the siding at Wanstead to allow the express to pass. It didn’t make it off the main track in time. Blizzard conditions prevented both trains from seeing each other until the last minute and the head-on collision killed 31.

 

[zombiegirl]

^jeeze, they have to get the train situation together =/. thanks DH

 

[beaverbreath]

DH, remember #2 very well. Friends evacuated to our house for almost 2 weeks. Tried to get back to get meds, pets. Unbelievable. Still amazing there was no fatalities.

 

[mimi666]

what's up with all these derailments? canada, and lately France and just today spain