(Newswire.net — July 06, 2013) Calgary, AB — A catastrophic train derailment in the town of Lac-Megantic, Qubec occurred at about 1:00 A.M Saturday morning. The derailment has caused a huge explosion and massive fire. The train was caring a number of crude oil cars. Massive fire balls and columns of smoke could be seen billowing from the site.
“There were 73 wagons in that train last night, and almost all of them are on fire right now,” Quebec provincial police Lt. Michel Brunet said.
“Firefighters are working hard to extinguish that fire, but it’s burning hard because of the crude oil,” Gomez del Prado explained. “So we’re trying to secure the area for now and after that we’ll try to extinguish the fire as soon as we can, but that’s going to take a while for sure.”
According to Brunet there were approximately 120 firefighters at the scene Saturday morning and some 30 buildings in downtown Lac-Megantic have been affected by the fire. Over 1,000 people have been evacuated from the scene.
The firefighters are having an extremely difficult time trying to get control of the fire burning the crude oil cars. Nearby communities such as Sherbrooke and Saint-Georges-de-Beauce are trying to help Lac-Megantic with the disaster. Additional firefighters from the United States have also been called in to help because of the towns close proximity to the border.
Due to the explosion and massive fire the police Sargent Gregory Gomez del Prado fears there will be casualties as several people in the area are still reported missing. Concerns over toxic fumes are not too high at the moment because the smoke columns are going high up in the in the atmosphere.
A large amount of crude oil is also reported to have spilled into the Chaudière River.
The train is owned by Montreal Maine & Atlantic. Their website site notes, “The Montreal, Maine & Atlantic began operation in January of 2003 and owns over 510 route miles of track, serving customers in Maine, Vermont, Quebec and New Brunswick.”
The fire is still not under control and at this time there is no information on what caused the derailment.
Media Contact Info:
Oil and Gas Directory – Oilfield Directory Publications
10301 104th Street Edmonton, Alberta T5J-1B9
Phone: 780-701-7282
Sources
http://www.mmarail.com/
http://youtu.be/1jG_dHBMum4
Author Scott Steele on Google+