Train carrying oil exploded: Downtown on fire

[matai]

LAC MEGANTIC, Que. - Balls of flames shot several metres into the air after a train carrying crude oil derailed in the Quebec town of Lac-Megantic early Saturday, sparking several explosions in the downtown core.

Some of the train's 73 cars exploded and a fire that that could be seen for several kilometres spread to a number of homes.




http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Train ... story.html

On video:

[Bsuds]

Scary stuff!

[grammafreddy]

Holy Crapola!

[jimsenchuk]

60 reported missing as runaway Canada oil train explosion forces town evacuation (VIDEO)

Four tanker cars of petroleum exploded in the east Canadian province of Quebec after a train derailed, leaving flames billowing hundreds of feet into the sky. Some 30 buildings were destroyed and 1,000 evacuated from homes. Local radio reports 60 missing.

“It's dreadful,” Lac-Megantic resident Claude Bedard told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. “It's terrible. We've never seen anything like it. The Metro store, Dollarama, everything that was there is gone.”

The 73-tanker train left the tracks shortly after 1 a.m. local time as it was passing through the French-speaking lakeside town of Lac-Megantic, causing a huge fireball to rise into the night sky. Witnesses told Reuters they heard at least five loud blasts. The fire spread to a number of homes.

Radio Canada have reported that dozens are missing.

http://rt.com/news/quebec-canada-train-fire-741/

[JLives]

That is an amazing picture.

[matai]

[matai]

It's very sad.. probably several dead as this happened during the night and most people living in these buildings were sleeping, probably burnt alive.

A witness reported on tv this morning that he saw the train rip through town and missed a corner just past downtown, and then derailed and exploded.

[Captain Awesome]

[matai]

Captain Awesome, your video is in French, can't understand a damn thing they're sayin'.

[matai]

Terrible pictures of Downtown Lac-Mégantic. If error msg appears, try refreshing by pressing F5, their servers are exploding as well:

http://www.spiq.ca/v2/ailleurs/2013_07_ ... index.html

Definitely, my most sincere thoughts are with them all.

[matai]

More details... the train was going 100km/h, ripping through downtown without a driver.

So far... 3 dead.. 80 missing, few chances to ever see them back.

Some reported the 72 wagon long train had no light on, and when it derailed it destroyed many buildings along the track.

The oil was on fire and burned through the manholes & inside water pipes as well.

Stephen Harper will visit the town today.

Source: http://www.journaldemontreal.com/2013/0 ... c-megantic

[Omnitheo]

The prices we pay for our oil

[matai]

[unclemarty]

Captain Awesome, your video is in French, can't understand a damn thing they're sayin'.

Here you go, in english:

*&^%...#$%@...oh man !@#$...well %^&* me!....%$#@

[jimsenchuk]

They are transporting more and more crude by rail now, has anyone heard who the rail company is?, seen on the news that the rail company has not even contacted the Mayor of the little town and the QPP are not saying anything.

I would have thought that they (engineer-conductor)cannot leave a train alone with nobody over seeing it.

Demand for tank cars to ship crude oil by rail rises at breakneck speed

By early 2015, thousands of newly minted, gleaming crude tank cars will leave the sheds of manufacturers such as Trinity Industries Inc., Union Tank Car Co. and Greenbrier Co. to carry rising North American crude production, offering some relief to the choked North American oil pipelines.

“The tank car backlog is close to 48,000, and perhaps as many as 30,000 are related to crude petroleum,” said Toby Kolstad, who runs advisory firm Rail Theory Forecasts.

The number of tank cars ordered for shipping crude and expected to be delivered by the end of 2014 will be enough to move two million barrels of oil per day, almost three times what is currently extracted from the Bakken shale basin, Mr. Kolstad said.

That’s the size of two Keystone XLs and one Seaway pipeline.

As much as 40% of the orders are from Canadian entities desperate to get their crude out of Western Canada and into U.S. refineries in the East and on the Gulf Coast.

Mr. Kolstad’s forecasts are broadly in line with other industry estimates.

“Recently the tank car order backlog was estimated at more than 45,000 cars, which includes a considerable number of cars for crude oil service,” said Doug Reece, business development manager at Procor, an Oakville, Ont.-based affiliate of Union Tank Car.

Full story here:

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/ ... =0c91-94f0