Posted on 07/07/2013 3:19:54 PM PDT by Squawk 8888
LAC-MEGANTIC, Que. — About 40 people are considered missing after the spectacular blaze and explosions that razed much of Lac-Megantic, increasing the likelihood that the number of fatalities could soar from the current official death toll of five.
“I can tell you that we have met a lot of people….and what I can tell you is that about 40 people are considered missing,” Quebec provincial police Lt. Michel Brunet told a news conference.
“We have to be careful with that number because it could go up or down.”
It is the first time police have gone public with an estimate since the derailment of a train carrying crude oil triggered Saturday morning’s fatal events.
Brunet said two bodies were found overnight and another two on Sunday morning. The first body was discovered Saturday.
Police say a higher death toll is inevitable.
About 30 buildings were destroyed after tanker cars laden with oil caught fire shortly after 1 a.m. One of them is the Musi-Cafe bar where dozens of people were enjoying themselves in the wee hours of a glorious summer night. Most of the missing are believed to have been at the bar.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalpost.com ...
They do lock up initially (like when a coupling fails or opens on a moving train), but not forever.
I stand corrected.
When I see stupid people standing across a railroad track, I hope that the train comes through really fast. They look like miniature bowling pins.
Nothing so far. Mind you, if it was terrorism or vandalism they’d keep quiet to avoid letting on how easy it would be.
While I confess that I don't know the mechanics of train air brakes, I thought that a positive pressure released the brakes and that if there were no pressure (as would be the case if the engine's compressor was NOT running), the brakes would be locked.
I'm assuming that this was a fail-safe system designed to stop cars from rolling if they got disconnected from the rest of the train.
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It’ll be interesting to see where the locomotive train air/brake brake lever allegedly was set after the locos went through town and stopped.
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I still think it's questionable to leave ~$8,000,000 of hazardous material next to the side of a road without adult supervision. It should be in a more secure place when parked at night.
Just where this disconnection happened and at what speed could be a big part of the investigation.
If the train came through town at 40 to 50 mph and the disconnection happened right in town, the pile up could easily happen before the tail part of the train stopped.
They (including maybe the MMA engineer - who was already in town) pulled some 13 intact tank cars off the rear of the train and away from the fire at some point shortly after the event.
""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."
The locomotive portion of the 73-car train actually detached half a mile outside of the small town, he added, but the cars carrying the oil kept on rolling. "
Another: "The detached back end of the train remains on the tracks, about 11 kilometres outside of Lac-Mégantic."
This makes no sense to me unless the locos derailed and got out of the way. If so, there'd be pics of wrecked locomotives.
The building collapse in Bangladesh got more coverage than this does, and Canada is right next door to us! It is bizarre.
If I had never lived back East I would never believe people would go to a nightclub that close to the railroad tracks.
The Musi-Cafe looked better than a lot of bars Old Ben partied at in his youth. That video though is just plain spooky in light of what happened.
Just d-mn
It's stunning to see how useless the American media has become. The left-wing political bias is one thing, but to virtually ignore a story like this is absurd. It's like there's a conspiracy or something. This story is every bit as interesting and important as the San Francisco plane crash, but the American media won't cover Canada. I guarantee you the Canadian media isn't ignoring the plane crash story like the American media is ignoring the oil train explosion.
Just... WOW.
“We know that one of our employees from our engineering department showed up at the same time to assist the fire department. Exactly what they did is being investigated so the engineer wasn’t the last man to touch that train, we know that, but we’re not sure what happened,” McGonigle said.
McGonigle said there was no reason to suspect any criminal or terror-related activity. "
“I still think it’s questionable to leave ~$8,000,000 of hazardous material next to the side of a road without adult supervision. It should be in a more secure place when parked at night.”
I understand your point. However, where do you park a train that is a mile long? 72 cars x 75’ long each, plus 3-4 engines = approx. 5700 feet.
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