Distress and Unease and Understatement

CN (Canadian National Railways) is congratulating itself that last year the company had the safest record in its history. And so far this year the same incident rate is on track. Safety is paramount, top of mind for the venerable railway. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has complete confidence in the safety record of the rail company. People living close to rail lines, well, not so much.

CN train derailment near Peers, Alberta, Sunday, 3 Nov.13 -- Jason Franson/The Canadian Press

Residents in the hamlet of Peers, Alberta, west of Edmonton experienced a bit of a fright on Sunday. A CN derailment, where thirteen cars tumbled off the tracks. They were carrying lumber. The one car that remained upright was carrying sulphur dioxide and it was reported that the load is "not a risk to public safety". Wayne McGuire, who lives a mere 500 metres from the crash site allowed as how residents have been increasingly nervous.

"It's been on our minds after the mess that happened in Gainford", he observed. The derailment in Peers, in fact, was less than 100 kilometres' distance from Gainford, Alberta. That's where residents in Gainford experienced the extreme concern and discomfort of having to vacate their homes because of a days-long blaze that resulted when three propane tankers crashed off the track and ignited, late last month.

What mystifies the residents of Peers is that the crash nearby their town occurred on a section of track that is perfectly unencumbered by any kind of potential fault, a curve, a significant grade, for it is a "straightaway" track. Too early in the investigation to speculate, warns a CN spokesman. Last month residents in Sexsmith Alberta were forced to evacuate as well, since rail cars carrying anhydrous ammonia left the rails there.

And before that event, 17 CN rail cars derailed as well in western Saskatchewan, on September 25. Some of those rail cars were carrying petroleum, ethanol and chemicals. "We're also getting a lot of questions about our safety record. This is natural", said Jim Vena, CN's chief operating officer at a news conference. It most certainly is.

No one living near frequently-used railway tracks in small-town Canada is unaware of the dreadful incident that took place in the Quebec town of Lac-Megantic in July. That one was a whopper. The night-dark centre of town was lit by an explosion of raging flames that consumed heritage buildings, and killed 47 people in the resulting inferno. That is precisely the kind of scene that visits people in their nightmares.

Smoke rises from railway cars that were carrying crude oil after derailing in downtown Lac Mégantic, Que., Saturday, July 6, 2013.     Photograph by: Paul Chiasson, THE CANADIAN PRESS

"Sir, what is your emergency?"
"Yes, there's a fire in downtown Lac-Megantic."
"Okay sir, in Lac-Megantic? What address?:
"Yes, it's on Laval Street."
"What's burning."
"It's an enormous fire."
"What is burning?"
"All of downtown."
"You're saying that all of downtown is burning?"
"Yes, this isn't a joke."

"For the first call, our (dispatcher) was skeptical because I guess it's hard to imagine an entire town burning like that. Then she saw the switchboard light up and knew something was terribly wrong."
"We were scouring Beauce and Estrie and telling them to start sending whatever paramedics they could."
"To give you an idea of how crazy it was, the fire chief's radio melted so, for a moment, we were kind of in the dark. But we managed to secure a backup radio frequency and kept in touch with him. Eventually we were getting calls from fire departments in the United States offering to chip in."
"We thought with a fire this size, we're going to see lots of injuries. But, ultimately, the ambulances were kind of unnecessary. The people who died that night were killed almost instantly."
Daniel Veilleux, director of St-Geoges-de-Beauce 911 call centre

Smoke and fire rises over train cars after a train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded in the town of Lac Mégantic, 100 kilometres east of Sherbrooke on Saturday, July 6, 2013.  Photograph by: Dario Ayala, The Gazette