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Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the part of Lac-Megantic affected by Saturday's crude oil explosion looks like a "war zone".
At least five people died when runaway train cars packed with crude oil derailed and blew up early on Saturday.
Some 30 buildings had been completely incinerated by fires which engulfed the historic centre, said Mr Harper.
Police are trying to find 40 missing people: a nearby bar was said to have been crowded at the time of the blast.
"This is an enormous area, 30 buildings just completely destroyed, for all intents and purposes incinerated,'' Harper said. ``There isn't a family that is not affected by this.''
The fires were so intense and burnt for so long that Quebec police warn some bodies may never be recovered.
The five bodies found are so charred they have been sent to Montreal for identification, police say.
Fires were finally extinguished early on Sunday evening.
"The flames, the fires all have been put out now. We did it," said fire chief Denis Lauzon.
Investigation pledge
Visiting the affected area on Sunday, Mr Harper said an "unbelievable disaster" had befallen Lac-Megantic, which is around 250km (155 miles) east of Montreal.
Saturday's pre-dawn explosion sent a fireball and black smoke into the air, forcing the evacuation of 2,000 people.
"This is an enormous area, 30 buildings just completely destroyed, for all intents and purposes incinerated," said Mr Harper. "There isn't a family that is not affected by this."
He added: "There'll be investigations to ascertain what's occurred and make sure it can't happen again."
Firefighters had been battling the flames with water and a fire retardant, but were staying at least 1,000 ft from the burning tankers for fear of more blasts, Mr Lauzon told reporters earlier on Sunday.
"We lost the bibliotheque [library] which had all the memories of people here - it's a mess," said Chief Lauzon.
People whose homes have been badly damaged were being given shelter at a nearby school.
The Montreal, Maine & Atlantic train had been parked in the village of Nantes - about 7km (four miles) from Lac-Megantic - during an overnight driver shift-change, said a company spokesman.
Its 73 cars carrying pressurised containers of crude oil somehow became uncoupled from five locomotive engines, gathering speed as they rolled downhill before derailing in the heart of Lac-Megantic.
Bernard Demers, who runs a restaurant near the blast site, said the fireball that followed the derailment at around 01:00 (05:00 GMT) on Saturday was "like an atomic bomb", the Sunday Telegraph reported.
The train had been travelling from the Bakken Field in North Dakota to a refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick.
Montreal, Maine & Atlantic owns more than 800km (500 miles) of track serving Maine, Vermont, Quebec and New Brunswick.
A picturesque lakeside town that is home to some 6,000 people, Lac-Megantic is close to the US border with Maine.
The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn't; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all
We love our superheroes because they refuse to give up on us. We can analyze them out of existence, kill them, ban them, mock them, and still they return, patiently reminding us of who we are and what we wish we could be.
"the play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king,
So, massive outcry about how fossil fuels are hideously dangerous and Canada will swear off their use forever, or are we only doing that when it's nuclear power and nobody dies?
Looks like the engineer didn't lock down the breaks and it free rolled down the hill.
OR
Damien is real, in the Devil had to take care of some business.
-"Wait a minute.....who is that Frazz is talking to in the gallery? Hmmm something is going on here.....Oh.... it seems there is some dispute over video taping of some sort......Frazz is really upset now..........wait a minute......whats he go there.......is it? Can it be?....Frazz has just unleashed his hidden weiner dog from his mini bag, while quoting shakespeares "Let slip the dogs the war!!" GG
-"Don't mind Frazzled. He's just Dakka's crazy old dude locked in the attic. He's harmless. Mostly."
-TBone the Magnificent 1999-2014, Long Live the King!
Laughing Man wrote: So, massive outcry about how fossil fuels are hideously dangerous and Canada will swear off their use forever, or are we only doing that when it's nuclear power and nobody dies?
Considering Harper's only been moving to heavily reduce regulations on the oilsands, definitely the latter, if anything.
I mean, sure, there might be massive outcry, but Harper doesn't exactly have a positive reputation when it comes to listening to Canadians.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/07/08 11:17:30
-"Wait a minute.....who is that Frazz is talking to in the gallery? Hmmm something is going on here.....Oh.... it seems there is some dispute over video taping of some sort......Frazz is really upset now..........wait a minute......whats he go there.......is it? Can it be?....Frazz has just unleashed his hidden weiner dog from his mini bag, while quoting shakespeares "Let slip the dogs the war!!" GG
-"Don't mind Frazzled. He's just Dakka's crazy old dude locked in the attic. He's harmless. Mostly."
-TBone the Magnificent 1999-2014, Long Live the King!
Somehow I think the train crew being morons who parked the thing uphill and then (possibly) screwed-up properly securing it is a bigger issue than the PM's policies on the oil sands development...
Somehow I think the train crew being morons who parked the thing uphill and then (possibly) screwed-up properly securing it is a bigger issue than the PM's policies on the oil sands development...
I also think that almost everyone right now doesn't give a feth about oil sands, beyond knee-jerk forumites reactions. But blaming the train crew might be premature. The last train operator to have been on duty that night is currently on suicide watch, and a lot of his colleagues have already come out saying that the company is incredibly sketchy. Montreal Maine & Atlantic hasn't even called the train crew yet.
For those wondering, the guy in Dogma's video is basically saying that there's no way to approach closer then where he is because of the heat.
We're up to 13 dead right now (I don't think anyone expects survivors).
[...] for conflict is the great teacher, and pain, the perfect educator.
Somehow I think the train crew being morons who parked the thing uphill and then (possibly) screwed-up properly securing it is a bigger issue than the PM's policies on the oil sands development...
I also think that almost everyone right now doesn't give a feth about oil sands, beyond knee-jerk forumites reactions. But blaming the train crew might be premature. The last train operator to have been on duty that night is currently on suicide watch, and a lot of his colleagues have already come out saying that the company is incredibly sketchy. Montreal Maine & Atlantic hasn't even called the train crew yet.
For those wondering, the guy in Dogma's video is basically saying that there's no way to approach closer then where he is because of the heat.
We're up to 13 dead right now (I don't think anyone expects survivors).
MMA officials are now trying to lay the blame on the fire crews who responded to the earlier fire after the train had been parked & secured for the night. They're claiming that firefighters shut down the train's engine to combat the blaze and didn't have the permission to do so, which might have led to the air breaks being disengaged.
Sounds pretty damn sketchy to me and smacks of politico talk for shameless finger pointing to avoid any kind of blame/responsibility for the likelihood that company policy & practices aren't what they should be...
Experiment 626 wrote: MMA officials are now trying to lay the blame on the fire crews who responded to the earlier fire after the train had been parked & secured for the night. They're claiming that firefighters shut down the train's engine to combat the blaze and didn't have the permission to do so, which might have led to the air breaks being disengaged.
Sounds pretty damn sketchy to me and smacks of politico talk for shameless finger pointing to avoid any kind of blame/responsibility for the likelihood that company policy & practices aren't what they should be...
Completely agree. The federal Bureau of Transport security agrees with us too. Apparently there's a whole bunch of little facts which doesn't add up with M. Burkhardt's story.
Also, the operator I earlier mentioned to be on suicide watch, apparently went into the blazing station, and alone pulled nine additionnal oil wagons that were left unsecure on the tracks, preventing a much bigger explosion.
[...] for conflict is the great teacher, and pain, the perfect educator.
Somehow I think the train crew being morons who parked the thing uphill and then (possibly) screwed-up properly securing it is a bigger issue than the PM's policies on the oil sands development...
I also think that almost everyone right now doesn't give a feth about oil sands, beyond knee-jerk forumites reactions. But blaming the train crew might be premature. The last train operator to have been on duty that night is currently on suicide watch, and a lot of his colleagues have already come out saying that the company is incredibly sketchy. Montreal Maine & Atlantic hasn't even called the train crew yet.
For those wondering, the guy in Dogma's video is basically saying that there's no way to approach closer then where he is because of the heat.
We're up to 13 dead right now (I don't think anyone expects survivors).
Note I am not blaming the crew at this point. I am blaming the train. Either the train was faulty, the crew was faulty, or there was an act of God. We just don't know yet.
-"Wait a minute.....who is that Frazz is talking to in the gallery? Hmmm something is going on here.....Oh.... it seems there is some dispute over video taping of some sort......Frazz is really upset now..........wait a minute......whats he go there.......is it? Can it be?....Frazz has just unleashed his hidden weiner dog from his mini bag, while quoting shakespeares "Let slip the dogs the war!!" GG
-"Don't mind Frazzled. He's just Dakka's crazy old dude locked in the attic. He's harmless. Mostly."
-TBone the Magnificent 1999-2014, Long Live the King!
A train operator's chief executive has blamed a local engineer for a runaway train that derailed and exploded in a Quebec town, killing at least 15.
Rail World boss Edward Burkhardt said he did not believe the last engineer had set a series of hand brakes, despite the engineer's protestations.
Residents heckled him as he visited Lac-Megantic.
Sixty people are now known to be dead or missing after Saturday morning's disaster.
At least 30 buildings were razed by the fireball from the explosion.
'Risky environment'
Making his first visit to the town on Wednesday, Mr Burkhardt said a train engineer had been suspended without pay.
"I think he did something wrong," Mr Burkhardt said, flanked by police escorts, in Lac-Megantic.
"It's hard to explain why someone didn't do something. We think he applied some hand brakes but the question is did he apply enough of them.
"He said he applied 11 hand brakes. We think that's not true. Initially we believed him but now we don't."
Some 200 officers were still conducting searches on Wednesday morning.
But police said the effort was taking a toll on some crew members and two people had to be taken off the operation over worries for their physical condition.
"This is a very risky environment," said Quebec Provincial Police Sgt Benoit Richard.
On Tuesday, Quebec Police Inspector Michel Forget said investigators had ruled out terrorism as a motive for the attack, but criminal negligence remained under consideration.
"This is an enormous task ahead of us," he said. "We're not at the stage of arrests."
Authorities have asked the relatives of those still missing to provide DNA samples by bringing in toothbrushes, razors and other items.
But the authorities have also warned some of the bodies may have been burnt to ashes in the explosion.
'Partial responsibility'
The train, carrying 72 cars of crude oil, was parked shortly before midnight on Friday in the town of Nantes about seven miles (11km) away.
Local firefighters were later called to put out a fire on the train.
While tackling that blaze, they shut down a locomotive that had apparently been left running to keep the brakes engaged.
Shortly afterwards the train began moving downhill in an 18-minute journey, gathering speed until it derailed in Lac-Megantic and exploded.
The fire department and the train's owners have appeared in recent days to point the finger at one another over the disaster.
Mr Burkhardt suggested on Tuesday evening that firefighters shared some blame.
"We don't have total responsibility, but we have partial responsibility," he told reporters in Montreal.
The train was carrying oil from the Bakken oil region in the US state of North Dakota to a refinery on the east coast of Canada
Merciful lady.... That's... yesh. My mental comparison involved BDA photos after bombing runs in WW2. That's the closest matching images I had off the top of my head.
I beg of you sarge let me lead the charge when the battle lines are drawn
Lemme at least leave a good hoof beat they'll remember loud and long
All the missing people have been reclassified as dead by the SQ. In total this disaster will have costed the lives of about 50 individuals.
M. Burkhardt (MMA's president and possibly the douchiest, most insensitive individual since Dick Cheney) visited the town today (despite the mayor's wishes that he abstained from doing so). He was smiling during the first few minutes of the interview.
He is now equally laying the blame at the operator's feet (Tom Harding) and the firefighters, ironically thus blaming those who actively saved lives that night. He has formed this conclusion before looking at any evidence provided by the SQ and other emergency services, and has no other proof of those claims other than his avowed distrust of his employee.
Worthy of notice, M. Burkhardt said he would be happy to see the train track redesigned to avoid entirely the community, but that he would not invest a cent on that project.
M. Burkhardt has lobbyied since the early 90s for his ''One Man, One Train'' plan, which, unsurprisingly, reduced to a single operator the train crew (normally its one mechanic and one driver). Initially illegal, this practice was permitted in the early 2000s.
Tom Harding is currently suspended without pay.
The president of the CAQ (third political party in influence here) asked to the Federal that MMA's operating license be revoked. Little chance of that happening.
[...] for conflict is the great teacher, and pain, the perfect educator.
