Fire chief angrily denies suggestion his crew played role in deadly Lac-Mégantic train disaster
Ryan Remiorz / CP The
downtown core lays in ruins as fire fighters continue to water
smoldering rubble Sunday, July 7, 2013 in Lac Megantic, Quebec after a
train derailed ignited tanker cars carrying crude oil.
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.
National Post
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.
Graeme Hamilton / National Post 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.
“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.
Ryan Remiorz / CP People
comfort each other in front of the refugee center at the local high
school Sunday, July 7, 2013 in Lac Megantic, Quebec after a train
derailed ignited tanker cars carrying crude oil. Five people are
confirmed dead and forty more are listed as missing.
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.
Graeme Hamilton / National Post A
Montreal, Maine & Atlantic locomotive leaves Nantes, Que., after
removing undamaged oil tankers from the scene of the derailment.
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?”
National Post GraphicsClick to enlarge
Francois Laplante-Delagrave / AFP / Getty Images Residents
stand beneath a cross on a hill overlooking Lac-Megantic in Quebec as
firefighters douse blazes after a freight train loaded with oil derailed
on July 6, 2013, sparking explosions that engulfed about 30 buildings
in fire.
“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.
National Post
Labels: Controversy, Disaster, Quebec
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