On the 6th of July, 2013, in the early hours of the morning, a freight train which had
been parked for the night on the railway tracks near Nantes in Quebec started to move.
Slowly at first, and then with greater and greater speed, it began to roll downhill towards
the nearby town of Lac-Mégantic.
The train consisted of 72 tanker cars, each one bearing a full load of crude oil.
With nobody on board and nothing to stop it, the train barrelled towards the sleeping town,
which was about to experience one of the worst rail disasters in Canadian history.
Lac-Mégantic was founded in 1884, and even during its very first years the railway was
a crucial part of its economy.
The town was situated at the point where two different railroads – that of the Canadian
Pacific Railway company and the Quebec Central Railway company – met on their route across
the continent… and it was considered so significant a hub that Canada’s first Prime
Minister even visited at one point as part of a campaign to champion the railways.
In the town’s more recent history, the railway is no less significant.
Trains form a crucial part of the town’s economy, delivering raw materials for several
factories, and carrying away the finished products they manufacture – products like
furniture and particle board.
The town is also a hub for tourists, with people visiting from all over the country
to enjoy the vast and beautiful Lake Mégantic, from which the town gets its name.
On the 5th of July, 2013, a freight train was making its way east across Canada, travelling
from New Town in North Dakota to an oil refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick.
The train consisted of 72 tanker cars loaded with 113,000 litres (or 30,000 gallons) of
crude oil, as well as not one but five locomotives to provide the power necessary to drive it.
As it neared Lac-Mégantic, night was falling.
The lone engineer on board – a man named Tom Harding – was scheduled to leave the
train on the main track at Nantes overnight so that it could be picked up by another driver
in the morning to continue its journey.
He might have been glad to leave the train, as it had been experiencing technical difficulties
for much of its route.
The lead locomotive was spewing excessive amounts of smoke.
Before leaving the train Mr Harding had to make it secure.
To do this he applied multiple handbrakes on all five locomotives, and checked that
they were sufficient to hold the train in place – an important step given that it
was parked on a very slight downward gradient.
This done, he contacted his employers, the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway.
He told them about the excess smoke, and after some discussion they agreed to leave the train
where it was and deal with the problem in the morning.
Mr Harding left the site in a taxi, bound for the hotel in Lac-Mégantic where he usually
stayed when working this route.
Before the next morning could come a small fire broke out in the smokestack of one of
the locomotives.
Although the cause was not known at the time, it was later revealed that the fire and the
excess smoke which had come before it were down to a bad repair job that had been done
on an engine several months before – a repair which had now finally failed.
Passing motorists on a nearby road saw the flames and called the fire service.
They arrived on scene and, following standard protocol, switched off the locomotives to
prevent fuel circulating to the flames they were trying to extinguish.
With this done, the flames were promptly put out.
Firefighters then called the MMA Railway, and advised them of what had happened and
what had been done.
MMA maintenance workers came out to the train and confirmed that it was safe, before everyone
left the scene.
It was around a quarter past midnight on the 6th of July.
The train was stationary on the tracks, the locomotives switched off, and the fire extinguished.
To a casual observer, it would have seemed that nothing at all was wrong.
But, in actual fact, all was not well.
The train was being held in place by two types of brake – a handbrake which physically
secured a brake shoe against the wheels, and an air brake which used air pressure to do
the same thing.
Now that the locomotives were switched off, the compressors which provided the air for
the air brakes were also switched off.
Air was leaking from the system and not being replaced.
Slowly, the pressure in the air brake system dropped until it was no longer sufficient
to hold the train in place.
Several minutes after the last firefighter left the scene, the massive train began rolling
downhill.
With nobody at the controls, the train gathered more and more speed with each passing minute.
It blasted through level crossings, leaving drivers puzzled by the speed of the train,
as well as the lack of engine noise or lights.
By the time it reached the town of Lac-Mégantic it was travelling at around 105 kilometres
(or 65 miles) per hour – far too fast for the section of track which passed through
the town.
It approached at breakneck speed with no lights and no warning except for the sparks and smoke
which spewed from its wheels.
Near a level crossing close to the town’s main street, the train derailed.
Tanker cars smashed into one another in a chaotic jumble, spilling volatile crude oil.
This formed a burning river which swept through the downtown area in a manner that some bystanders
likened to a tsunami of fire.
Those who saw it coming tried to flee, with some even leaping from windows to make their
escape… but in many cases the flames simply moved too quickly to be outrun.
Buildings were swamped, streets engulfed in fire, and sewers and basements flooded with
burning oil.
One of the worst-hit locations in Lac-Mégantic was a popular bar known as the Musi-Café.
The building, which was still packed with patrons at the time of the disaster, was completely
consumed.
Only those who fled immediately on hearing the crash survived.
Some patrons, mistaking the sound for an earthquake, took shelter within the building rather than
running.
They did not survive.
The emergency response began almost immediately, with more than 100 firefighters flocking to
the scene.
They were presented with an incredibly complex task.
Rarely had any of them faced a fire that had quite so much fuel at its disposal.
And, being liquid, this fuel spread in unexpected ways, flowing down into drains and erupting
into basements or cellars several streets away.
Despite a confusing and dangerous situation, rescuers co-ordinated extremely well.
Firefighters worked to block off drains and create firebreaks, then used foam to tackle
the flames.
Water was used to douse tanker cars that had not yet exploded.
Among the people working across the vast area of the disaster was Mr Harding – the engineer
who had left the train on the tracks in the first instance.
He had seen the flames consuming the downtown area from his hotel, and had called his bosses
to tell them what was going on.
It had come as a terrible surprise to him to find out that it was his train that had
rolled down into the town and caused this devastation.
Leaving his hotel, he joined a small group consisting of firefighters and workers from
local industries, who used heavy loading equipment from the factories where they worked to move
the few tankers and locomotives that were still on the rails away from the fire, preventing
further devastation.
Meanwhile the local hospital was put on high alert… but ultimately received very few
casualties.
Few of the injuries caused by the disaster had been in any way survivable.
All in all 47 people were killed in the disaster, which also destroyed more than thirty buildings,
displaced thousands of residents and hundreds of businesses, and all but levelled a huge
part of Lac-Mégantic.
The flames took two days to extinguish.
Once they were finally out, an investigation was launched.
It was found that many factors had contributed to the disaster.
Prominently Mr Harding, the train engineer, had failed to apply enough handbrakes before
leaving the train.
He had used seven handbrakes, but should have applied more than twice that number for a
train of that size and weight.
He had made another error by testing the brakes while both the handbrakes and the airbrakes
were applied.
He should have switched off the air brakes for the test, to ensure that the train could
be held in place by the action of the handbrakes alone.
Three men, including Mr Harding and two other railway employees, were put on trial, charged
with 47 counts of criminal negligence causing death.
While there was considerable public anger about the disaster, most of it was not directed
at these individuals, but instead was saved for the MMA Railway.
It emerged that the company had provided minimal training, had ignored complaints about the
safety of its track, had used outdated tankers, cut corners on repairs, and in many other
ways demonstrated an extremely relaxed attitude towards safety over the course of many years.
Given these factors, all three men were eventually acquitted.
Legal proceedings began against the MMA Railway, which subsequently announced bankruptcy and
laid off most of its employees.
Outside of the MMA Railway, many changes in procedure were brought in by railways across
Canada and the US.
Stricter rules to cover how trains must be left if left overnight, how they must be maintained,
and to determine which trains and which routes can accommodate dangerous or flammable substances.
Most railway companies now require at least two engineers on a train carrying dangerous
materials, and insist on a stringent series of safeguards whenever a train of this type
is left overnight on the tracks.
To this day the damage to Lac-Mégantic is still visible.
A huge part of the town has been lost, including the beloved Musi-café bar, the local library,
and several other civic buildings.
Some have been moved and reinstated elsewhere.
Contaminated with crude oil, the downtown area that was the epicentre of the disaster
remains relatively desolate.
Trains continue to run on the tracks which brought the disaster to town… although,
at the request of residents, for at least one day most years – the 6th of July – no
trains run through town, as a mark of respect for a community mourning its dead.