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.

BBC News

From what I've read some may have been vaporized, so there may be some who will not be able to be buried.

---

The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

20 dead for now have been recover

http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/societe/2013/07/10/003-bilan-megantic-situation.shtml

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.

BBC News

From what I've read some may have been vaporized, so there may be some who will not be able to be buried.

Horrible! My heart goes out to those people's family's...

---

rOZZ
Music
Pictures

A very similar disaster happened in Viareggio, an Italian coastal town, on June 29 2009. A train carrying liquefied gas derailed while passing the station because of a broken axle. In the following fire 32 people died.
Tullio

---

Mike Sebrey: see my previous explanation of how train brakes work.

Jean Labreque: Before hollering about safety vs. profit, let's wait for the results of the investigation. (It would also be nice if people would hold off on the death threats against Ed Burkhardt.)

Gary Charpentier: I doubt if it's a union thing. I'm not even sure if this railroad is unionized. My understanding is that the track maintainer who went out to check on the train after the locomotive fire didn't know enough about train operation to realize there was a problem. If he had known and wanted to make a union thing of it, I think he at least would have said so and they would have sent someone else out right away.

James Sotherden: it is quite common for trains to be left unattended, sometimes for days, on railroads of all sizes.

Chris S: The quote is fairly ignorant. Railroads safely move things far more hazardous than crude oil. These cars are not pressurized (I think). Also, 72 cars is a relatively short train. They usually run about 100.

General comment: as may have been mentioned here already, crude oil is not explosive. It appears that when it derailed, it hit propane tanks belonging to homes and businesses, which caused the explosion. The oil then fed the fire.

---

David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Maybe then trains should not be left unattended. We have had a big example of why.
You just about get strip searched boarding a stinking airplane but the rail roads leave trains all alone for days with who knows what kind of high end cargo or toxic chemicals in them. I can see the terroists wanting to go to train school now.

---

[/quote]

Old James

24 dead recover for now

[url]http://tvanouvelles.ca/lcn/infos/faitsdivers/archives/2013/07/20130711-153220.html

i live in Sherbrooke in the eastern township so is Lac Megantic the town of the disaters.

My house is near the railroad ...every day i see that train passing about 500 hundrend feet from my home.

since the disater the train speed is about 10 mi per houre ...before 30 mi per houre.

Ed Burkhardt said that he had receive message of death treaths and that he delete them so why he don't give them to the police that is investigating????

And yes i have family in LAC MEGANTIC and every body is fine they were not in downtown when it happend.

Every day on LCN AND ON RDI two all day news channel there special report from the morning to 18.00hr every day


AND for the profit vs security ...it is not comming from me they are thaking about it in the news in the region

even in the u s a the maine is going to check for that compagnie and the safety of the railway ....you can verify this in the news.



[/url]

24 dead recover for now

http://tvanouvelles.ca/lcn/infos/faitsdivers/archives/2013/07/20130711-153220.html

i live in Sherbrooke in the eastern township so is Lac Megantic the town of the disaters.

My house is near the railroad ...every day i see that train passing about 500 hundrend feet from my home.

since the disater the train speed is about 10 mi per houre ...before 30 mi per houre.

Ed Burkhardt said that he had receive message of death treaths and that he delete them so why he don't give them to the police that is investigating????

And yes i have family in LAC MEGANTIC and every body is fine they were not in downtown when it happend.

Every day on LCN AND ON RDI two all day news channel there special report from the morning to 18.00hr every day


AND for the profit vs security ...it is not comming from me they are thaking about it in the news in the region

even in the u s a the maine is going to check for that compagnie and the safety of the railway ....you can verify this in the news.

I am sincerely happy to hear that your relatives are okay.

I'm quite sure it's the media making the profit/safety accusations, and I accuse them of sensationalizing the tragedy to boost their own profits.

I'm not just saying this because I'm a railfan. I have little interest in airplanes, but I'm not throwing around wild accusations about the SFO incident. I'm waiting for the facts to come out.

---

David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Please read this

[url]http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/societe/2013/07/11/010-mma-investissement-entente-canada-quebec.shtml

Sir I am not the first one to speak about `safety and security and profit`

[/url]

an other article

[url]http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/International/2013/07/10/015-trains-maine-lac-megantic.shtml

MAINE WILL investigate


[/url]

Please read this

Sir I am not the first one to speak about `safety and security and profit`

Fixed your link Jean :)

---

an other article

MAINE WILL investigate

:)

---

THANK YOU MONDAY

JEAN..i try but not always succed

This tragic event was not about the railroad trying to chose profits over safety.
This is about human error.
I think enough safeguards were in place that, if fully followed, might have avoided the sequence of events that led to what happened. It does not take much out of profits to insist that a certain number of hand brakes are manually set when parking a train.

I suspect that not enough hand brakes were set. Under usual circumstances, this might not have been a problem. But when a fire broke out in an engine, which was then shut down and stopped the air compressors from maintaining pressure in the braking system, now we have a problem. And the fact that whoever was responsible for shutting the engine down did not realize the consequences of doing so was a problem as well.

Should extra precautions have been mandated any time a freight train is 'put to bed for the night' when parked on any kind of grade? I suppose so. Maybe there were, but the mandate was not followed.

I am not placing blame, just postulating.

I am sure as the investigations continue, the truth will eventually come to light and some, if not all of the blame, shall find it's home.

I am sure that more than a few people are having trouble sleeping wondering if their actions that night contributed to the disaster and loss of many lives.

---

"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

This tragic event was not about the railroad trying to chose profits over safety.
This is about human error.
I think enough safeguards were in place that, if fully followed, might have avoided the sequence of events that led to what happened. It does not take much out of profits to insist that a certain number of hand brakes are manually set when parking a train.

I suspect that not enough hand brakes were set. Under usual circumstances, this might not have been a problem. But when a fire broke out in an engine, which was then shut down and stopped the air compressors from maintaining pressure in the braking system, now we have a problem. And the fact that whoever was responsible for shutting the engine down did not realize the consequences of doing so was a problem as well.

Should extra precautions have been mandated any time a freight train is 'put to bed for the night' when parked on any kind of grade? I suppose so. Maybe there were, but the mandate was not followed.

I am not placing blame, just postulating.

I am sure as the investigations continue, the truth will eventually come to light and some, if not all of the blame, shall find it's home.

I am sure that more than a few people are having trouble sleeping wondering if their actions that night contributed to the disaster and loss of many lives.

mr slater you are right about that...the investigation will give us clue to what happend and why...it happ0end.

i am not trying to find a responsable of the tragedy i try to share what is going on here in the region like you would .

i have some local link that i could share with you or other who are interesred

most of them are in french so you will have translate them.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR FOR YOUR INTERESTE IN OUR REGION...'IT COULD HAPPEND TO YOU'

jean

a song to help the people in town

http://tvanouvelles.ca/lcn/infos/faitsdivers/archives/2013/07/20130712-090956.html

On Thursday, Quebec Premier Pauline Marois visited the site of last Saturday's wreck and had strong words for RailWorld chairman, Ed Burkhardt, who visited the devastated community on Wednesday. Marois says Burkhardt's decision to stay in Chicago, headquarters of Montreal, Maine & Atlantic parent company RailWorld, was “deplorable” and “unacceptable.” Burkhardt says he delayed his trip to Quebec to deal with the crisis from his office.

Sounds like political posturing to me. What does she think he could have done better from there than from his office? Would she expect E. Hunter Harrison to come right out if Canadian Pacific still owned the line? I doubt he would at all.

The PM is making a lot more sense.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Stephan Harper visited Lac-Mégantic and said it would “not be responsible” to jump to conclusions about the accident before the investigation was completed.

As for Maine, I think they're doing a bit of political grandstanding too. Would they be investigating if this had happened in New Hampshire?

---

David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

33 body found and a day of prayers

http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/estrie/2013/07/13/005-lac-megantic-eglise-recueillement-train.shtml

33 body found and a day of prayers

http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/estrie/2013/07/13/005-lac-megantic-eglise-recueillement-train.shtml

I shall join you in prayer, my Canadian friend.

---

"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Never ask for whom the bell tolls
It tolls also for thee
(John Donne)

---