This is pretty crazy. Lots of pics and videos in article.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/casual...s-fire-in-quebec-town-1.1356188#ixzz2YHSzICuJ
A massive fire sparked by the derailment of a train carrying crude oil is still burning in the eastern Quebec town of Lac-Megantic.
Some people in the town were reported missing, but officials have been unable to get close enough to the fire to determine if there have been any fatalities following the early-morning derailment.
Unfortunately, we do fear that there are going to be casualties, Quebec provincial police Sgt. Gregory Gomez del Prado told CTV News Channel on Saturday.
At least 1,000 residents have been evacuated from their homes in Lac-Megantic, which is located about 250 kilometres east of Montreal.
A Facebook group was quickly set up to help people track down loved ones who couldn't be reached by phone.
A number of the trains 73 cars exploded shortly after 1 a.m., causing a fire that spread to several of buildings in the community.
There were 73 wagons in that train last night, and almost all of them are on fire right now, Quebec provincial police Lt. Michel Brunet said.
Brunet said approximately 120 firefighters remain at the scene Saturday morning while about 30 buildings in downtown Lac-Megantic have been affected by the fire.
Its a major blast and of course there are some stores and some residences that were in the trajectory of the fire and those are the main buildings that are affected, Gomez del Prado said.
The train belongs to Montreal Maine & Atlantic. According to the companys website, it serves Maine, Vermont, Quebec and New Brunswick and owns more than 800 kilometres of rail tracks.
Lac-Megantic resident Claude Bedard told The Canadian Press that the town has never seen anything like the fire.
Its terrible, he said. The Metro store, Dollarama, everything that was there is gone.
A number of neighbouring communities, including Sherbrooke and Saint-Georges-de-Beauce, were asked to help Lac-Megantic deal with the fire.
Firefighters are working hard to extinguish that fire, but its burning hard because of the crude oil, Gomez del Prado said. So were trying to secure the area for now and after that well try to extinguish the fire as soon as we can, but thats going to take a while for sure.
The cause of the derailment was not immediately known.
Brunet said some crude oil has spilled into the lake and theres some concern about fumes surrounding the derailment site.
Right now, so far, the smoke is going very high, so theres no problem for the population so far, he said.
With files from The Canadian Press
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/casual...s-fire-in-quebec-town-1.1356188#ixzz2YHSzICuJ
A massive fire sparked by the derailment of a train carrying crude oil is still burning in the eastern Quebec town of Lac-Megantic.
Some people in the town were reported missing, but officials have been unable to get close enough to the fire to determine if there have been any fatalities following the early-morning derailment.
Unfortunately, we do fear that there are going to be casualties, Quebec provincial police Sgt. Gregory Gomez del Prado told CTV News Channel on Saturday.
At least 1,000 residents have been evacuated from their homes in Lac-Megantic, which is located about 250 kilometres east of Montreal.
A Facebook group was quickly set up to help people track down loved ones who couldn't be reached by phone.
A number of the trains 73 cars exploded shortly after 1 a.m., causing a fire that spread to several of buildings in the community.
There were 73 wagons in that train last night, and almost all of them are on fire right now, Quebec provincial police Lt. Michel Brunet said.
Brunet said approximately 120 firefighters remain at the scene Saturday morning while about 30 buildings in downtown Lac-Megantic have been affected by the fire.
Its a major blast and of course there are some stores and some residences that were in the trajectory of the fire and those are the main buildings that are affected, Gomez del Prado said.
The train belongs to Montreal Maine & Atlantic. According to the companys website, it serves Maine, Vermont, Quebec and New Brunswick and owns more than 800 kilometres of rail tracks.
Lac-Megantic resident Claude Bedard told The Canadian Press that the town has never seen anything like the fire.
Its terrible, he said. The Metro store, Dollarama, everything that was there is gone.
A number of neighbouring communities, including Sherbrooke and Saint-Georges-de-Beauce, were asked to help Lac-Megantic deal with the fire.
Firefighters are working hard to extinguish that fire, but its burning hard because of the crude oil, Gomez del Prado said. So were trying to secure the area for now and after that well try to extinguish the fire as soon as we can, but thats going to take a while for sure.
The cause of the derailment was not immediately known.
Brunet said some crude oil has spilled into the lake and theres some concern about fumes surrounding the derailment site.
Right now, so far, the smoke is going very high, so theres no problem for the population so far, he said.
With files from The Canadian Press
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