Update: The Death Toll In The Canadian Oil Train Disaster will be 67+ [View all]

[cali]

There is no chance that those missing survived. 50 are now officially missing in addition to the 13 dead. And there could be more.

A RUNAWAY train carrying oil exploded in the Quebec town of Lac Mégantic on July 6th, creating a fireball that flattened dozens of buildings. It took two days for the town centre to cool sufficiently for searchers to begin sifting the charred debris for the 50 people reported missing. It will be much longer before investigators can provide satisfactory answers to the questions of what happened and why.

For the 6,000 residents of the tourist town situated just west of the border with the United States, the tragedy is intensely personal. Thirteen people are confirmed dead and there is little expectation that anyone in the immediate area of the blast survived. The provincial coroner has already raised the possibility that some were vaporised by the intense heat. The formerly picturesque main street looked like a “war zone”, said Stephen Harper, the prime minister, following a visit on July 7th. Some 2,000 people were forced to leave their homes. Most are expected to be allowed back on July 9th.

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http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2013/07/canada-s-train-explosion


Lac-Mégantic: Quebec train explosion death toll rises to 13
Quebec police bump up the number of people who are unaccounted for to 50.

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When the wall of fire emerged from the runaway train that went off the tracks right at Lac Mégantic’s main strip, whole families were sleeping. Young women were tending bar and serving celebratory drinks with close friends and loved ones. Others were entertaining those revellers with song.

Now search teams are combing through what police have labelled a crime scene.

Early Monday morning search crews were still confined to a small portion of the razed area because it was still deemed too dangerous — the risk of more explosions, of fires reigniting, of building carcasses falling down. But by day’s end, police Sgt. Benoit Richard said, “We can go practically anywhere now.”

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http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/07/08/lacmegantic_quebec_train_blast_death_toll_rises_to_13.html