Mourning a Tragedy

It has been possible so far to positively identify several remains of the catastrophic train derailment accident that occurred early Saturday morning in Lac-Megantic, Quebec. A total of thirteen bodies has been disinterred from the wreckage of the town's central downtown area. Charred beyond recognition; it will take dental records to make any kind of identification possible. Another thirty to forty remains may yet be revealed, for it is estimated that at least fifty people are missing.

This is a town where the railway runs through its centre, originally built to accommodate railway workers and the town just grew around the tracks. People were accustomed to hearing and seeing trains going through their town. The maximum speed reached by trains transiting the town would be around 20 km/hr. When a 73-car train operated by The Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway, with no fewer than five locomotives ran through Lac-Megantic early Saturday morning, it was running at over 100 km/hr.

That's because there was no one in control. The train had, seemingly by and of itself rolled from where it had been left, presumably secured, on a long slope a full 11 kilometres -- from neighbouring Nantes where it had been parked for the night while its engineer took his rest after a 12-hour working stint -- down to Lac-Megantic. Late Friday night someone in Nantes observed a fire in one of the engines and had raised the alarm, to which the local fire department responded.

The firemen competently put out the fire, and on the arrival of two engineers from the rail company, they left the scene, assured they were no longer needed. A very short while afterward, the train began its journey. "About five minutes after the firemen left, I felt the vibration of a train moving down the track. I then saw the train move by without its lights on. It wasn't long after that I heard the explosion", said Nantes resident Andre Gendron.

It rolled down a 6% grade, picking up speed as it passed farms went along the tracks through woods and alongside Quebec Highway 161. When it reached Lac-Megantic it was travelling at 101 kilometres an hour, statistics pulled from the locomotive's data recorder, according to Donald Ross, the Transportation Safety Board investigator in charge.

"The fire started very quickly. For a few seconds, I said, 'There are people inside. What should we do? Do we go in after them? There was a wall of fire. The heat was too intense. I realized people were not going to get out", said Bernard Theberge who recalled hearing a fearfully loud sound oncoming and then saw the black shape of the train hauling itself forward at top speed, a hellish spectacle to disbelieving eyes.

The owner of the Musi-Cafe, a popular night-spot where people in town loved to congregate with friends, celebrate social events, and just relax on a Friday night, had left his bar earlier, in the capable hands of his employees. He'd gone home to relieve a baby-sitter, then called his wife to return home, and just call it a day. His trusted friends and employees would lock up for the night. He received a panicked call from a waitress telling him there was a fire. He advised everyone to leave quickly.

Soon afterward he would know what caused the fire and that no one was able to leave quickly or otherwise. "They won't find anyone [alive]", he said. "It's impossible. People are waiting for news, but a fire at that temperature, nothing remains. It melts cars." When he went by the crisis centre at the local high school, there was the babysitter. "Her mother was at the bar. She is missing. There are connections everywhere. It's unbelievable", he said.

Industry veterans have responded to the claims by the rail company that the firefighters, in shutting down the engine to fight the fire that had erupted, had been responsible for releasing air brakes on the locomotive that held the train in place. They claim this to be highly unlikely. A powered-down locomotive on its own, they believe, could not precipitate a total failure of a train's air brake system.

A full investigation will ultimately reveal what had gone awry to cause this catastrophe. But it won't bring fifty people back to life and resuscitate a town whose heritage and culture has been so horribly impacted.