Canada - 47 killed as train explodes, Lac-Megantic, QC, 6 July 2013

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Breaking news: Canadian town 'wiped out' as freight train carrying hundreds of tons of crude oil derails and explodes. (Daily Mail)
The center of a Quebec town has been wiped out, according to the mayor, after a freight train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded in a fireball at 1am on Saturday.

Parts of the town were evacuated as fireballs shot several metres in the air, flames spread to nearby homes and thick acrid smoke filled the air.

Emergency workers helped about 1,000 residents escape Lac-Megantic, which is close to the Maine border and about 250km from Montreal.

It is not yet known if anyone was killed or injured in the blast, according to the Hamilton Spectator.

About 30 buildings in the town center were destroyed by the fire.

'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,' the town's mayor, Colette Roy-Laroche, said.
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more, with pictures, at the link

Explosions rock Quebec town of Lac-Megantic after train derailment. (Hamilton Spectator)
 
Good grief, I can't even imagine the noise that made!
 
From DM link above:
Witnesses said the blast flattened an apartment building and part of a pub, which had a terrace packed with people at the time of the fire.
 
I would think many people are dead if businesses and houses are completely gone as is stated.

This is horrifying.
 
Police say at least one person has died after a driverless train carrying light crude oil exploded in the Canadian town of Lac-Megantic.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23212541

Description of the accident and aerial pic of the town. Appears to be multiple fires.

They also have an environmental disaster because some of the oil spilled into the river and is now headed downstream.

Some of the cars exploded, some didn't. So they also have fears of the intact containers exploding.
 
Joseph R. McGonigle confirmed to The Gazette early Saturday afternoon that shortly before midnight, the train's conductor stopped in nearby Nantes, locked the brakes and checked to ensure that the rail cars carrying thousands of litres of crude oil were all securely attached.

He then checked into a nearby Lac Mégantic hotel for the night. Another conductor was reportedly expected to take over driving the train within a few hours.

"Sometime after (the first conductor left), the train got loose," said McGonigle, who is vice president of marketing for The Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway. "It travelled under its own inertia to the centre of the town."
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Train+carrying+crude+derails+explodes+Megantic/8625250/story.html
 
I lived in a railroad town with many trains a day passing through. One never imagines it will happen.
 
Here's a photo of the train when it was parked several miles away from the town.

A passerby noticed the train was on fire, but before any help could arrive, somehow the brakes were released (possibly the brake hoses burned through) and the train started rolling (the engines were running). And once it was rolling there was no way to stop it.

http://i.imgur.com/yd3RFz5.jpg
 
A bit odd that both this and the SFO plane crash would happen today, on the 25th anniversary of the Piper Alpha explosions and fire.

25 years ago today, the Piper Alpha oil platform exploded in the North Sea; 167 died - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community


It's also the 69th anniversary of the Hartford CT Cirucs Fire which killed 168 people and injured over 700, the 35th anniversary of the sleeping car fire in Taunton, Somerset UK, in which twelve died, and the 19th anniversary of Colorado's South Canyon Fire, which killed fourteen firefighters.
 
Sunset at Lac-Mégantic is 8:34 ET tonight; another hour-plus of daylight to search the ruins for those missing.
 
Just reading up on the details. Trains have been a recurring nightmare for me all of my life. A runaway train, no conductor, smashes into town, blows it up. Are you kidding me??? Archetypal nightmare. JMO Prayers to all in Lac Megantic.

article-2357352-1AB07756000005DC-606_634x819.jpg


article-2357352-1AB07244000005DC-454_634x489.jpg


article-2357352-1AB075DC000005DC-263_634x835.jpg


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...hundreds-tons-crude-oil-derails-explodes.html
 
Today I was thinking about the major disasters we are having lately. The floods and fires and even manmade disasters and the way they are taking out whole cities. And I got to thinking about Revelations. And now Matou you had to go and post that second pic.
 
During London's perhaps-worst two consecutive years - 1665's plague and the Great Fire in 1666 - there were even portents in the skies: an eclipse, comets, and so on. They were seriously freaking.

London's still here.
 

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