A Quebec town was evacuated and one person was reported dead after a train carrying petroleum products derailed and exploded in the early hours of Saturday morning. NBC's Michelle Franzen reports.
By Tracy Jarrett, NBC News
A driverless train carrying petroleum products derailed and exploded early Saturday in a Quebec town, setting off a massive blaze that killed at least one person and burned for hours as responders feared additional blasts.
Railroad officials said a crew parked the train outside of Lac-Megantic and wasn't aboard when several hours later it somehow began rolling down the tracks and derailed around 1 a.m. local time.
Four tanker cars exploded in a blast that set ablaze multiple buildings in the center of the lakeside town of 6,000 people close to the U.S. border.?Burning crude spilled into the storm sewers and rose up through street manholes, setting buildings on fire, the head of the rail company that ran the train told Reuters.
As of Saturday afternoon, one person had been confirmed dead, Sgt. Gregory Gomez del Prado of the Quebec Provincial Police told NBC News.
"When you see the center of your town almost destroyed, you'll understand that we're asking ourselves how we are going to get through this event," town Mayor Colette Roy-Laroche said at a news briefing, according to Reuters.
Fires were still burning at the center of the devastation, nearly 24 hours after the blast.?
"There are still wagons which we think are pressurized. We're not sure because we can't get close, so we're working on the assumption that all the cars were pressurized and could explode. That's why progress is slow and tough," local fire chief Denis Lauzon told Reuters.
S?ret? du Qu?bec
Smoke rises from a devastated portion of Lac-Megantic, Quebec, hours after a train derailment caused explosions and a huge fire on Saturday.
Police officials said they believe at least 50 tanks caught fire. The train had 72 cars and five locomotives.
?It?s dreadful,? Lac-Megantic resident Claude Bedard told the CBC. ?It?s terrible. We?ve never seen anything like it. The Metro store, Dollarama, everything that was there is gone.?
Over 1,000 people have been evacuated from the center of town and are being housed in a nearby primary school, Del Prado said. It is unknown when these residents may be allowed back into the area.
The blast ruptured a water main, forcing the town to bring in tankers for drinking water, Reuters reported.
The Canadian Red Cross said it had set up an information center at a local high school, Polyvalente Montignac. Over 300 people has already reported to the facility, the Red Cross said.? The will be set up as a shelter at least through Saturday night, according to Red Cross director of communications Myrian Marotte.
?We will provide shelter, food, clothes if needed, and moral support,? Marotte said.
Industry Minister Christian Paradis, who handles Quebec affairs for the federal government, indicated the death toll was likely to rise, Reuters reported.
Montreal, Maine & Atlantic, which operates the rail line, said in a statement released Saturday evening that it had received reports of "a number of fatalities and injuries."
Police are working to locate any missing persons before investigating the cause of the derailment.
?There was a bar in the area open at the time of the accident. We know from the witnesses, that some of them were able to get out and escape the fire, others, they were with people that are still missing. We don?t know what happened to them,? Gomez del Prado said.
Edward Burkhardt, chairman of Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway, told Reuters that an engineer had parked the train outside town a few hours before the disaster.
"He claims he set the brakes on all five of the engines. He also claims he set the brakes on a sufficient number of cars on the train," Burkhardt told Reuters.
Montreal, Maine & Atlantic owns some 510 miles of track in Maine and Vermont in the United States and in Quebec and New Brunswick in Canada, according to Reuters.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada said it sent four investigators to the scene.
?At this point what we want to do is gather information,? said Chris Krepski, a spokesman for the TSB. ?We will travel to the site to gather information, interview witnesses and talk to the operator, but we will have to wait until the area is safe and secure before we go in and examine wreckage.?
Prime Minister Stephen Harper tweeted that his "thoughts & prayers are with those impacted in Lac Megantic. Horrible news."
In the meantime, firemen from the surrounding area, including some from Franklin County, Maine, worked to put out the fires.
?All of the firefighters in the surrounding areas have come to help,? Gomez del Prado said. ?This blast, it?s a catastrophe for the town, a catastrophe for the people, and a catastrophe for the environment.?
NBC News? Ian Johnston contributed to this report.
Paul Chiasson / The Canadian Press via AP
Smoke rises from railway cars that were carrying crude oil after derailing in downtown Lac Megantic, Quebec, Canada, Saturday, July 6, 2013. The derailment sparked several explosions and forced the evacuation of up to 1,000 people.
This story was originally published on Sat Jul 6, 2013 10:13 PM EDT
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