The Story of Lac-Mégantic by Justin Franz
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RAILROADING’S TITANIC The story of Lac-Mégantic by Justin Franz Crude oil tank cars in a Montreal, Maine & Atlantic train burn at Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, on July 6, 2013. The fiery crash killed 47 people. Transportation Safety Board of Canada 10 TRAIN WRECKS • Vol. 2 ust before 11 p.m. on July 5, resulted in the death of 47 people and 2013, Montreal, Maine & At- leveled buildings in the heart of down- lantic Railway train No. 2, an town Lac-Mégantic, changing the small eastbound oil train, pulled to lakeside community forever. But the a stop at the east end of the incident also had impacts far beyond Nantes siding, 7 miles west of Lac-Mégantic and they continue to Lac-Mégantic, Quebec. Lo- impact the rail industry five years later. In comotive engineer Thomas many ways, the derailment and explosion Harding, a 33-year veteran of in Lac-Mégantic on July 6, 2013, changed the railroad, who first hired the rail industry in the same way the out on the Canadian Pacific sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic a century in 1980, emerged from the earlier impacted maritime transportation. cab of General Electric C30-7 locomotive No. 5017 into a SMOKE AND FLAMES warm July night. Ten minutes after Harding left the sid- The 74-car train with five ing at Nantes in the taxi, a nearby resident locomotives stretched into called 911 to report that the train in Nantes the darkness along Route 161 was on fire. Smoke and flames were pour- and, with the exception of the idling loco- ing out of the stack of the train’s lead loco- motives, all was quiet. Harding began to motive due to a build up of oil. Sûreté du Jwalk along the train and apply handbrakes Québec, the provincial police, called the on five locomotives, a buffer car, and a re- MM&A dispatcher in Farnham to inform mote control caboose placed between the him that the train was on fire. The dis- first and second locomotives. He then shut patcher told police that it was loaded with down the trailing four locomotives and did crude oil. a brake test. At 11:05 p.m., Harding called The dispatcher called the operations the dispatcher in Farnham, the division manager to advise him of the fire. They de- point to the west where he had started his cided that an MM&A employee from Mar- workday 10 hours earlier, to ask for a taxi ston, Que., just south of Lac-Mégantic, to take him to his hotel. should go inspect the train. The dispatcher While waiting for the taxi, Harding called twice but was unsuccessful in reach- called another dispatcher in Bangor, ing the former locomotive engineer and Maine, headquarters of the MM&A, to mechanic. Meanwhile, the Nantes Fire De- talk about issues he had with the lead lo- partment arrived at the scene, boarded the comotive throughout the day. Harding re- locomotive and shut down the engine ported that the engine had been losing using the emergency fuel cut-off switch in momentum throughout the trip and that order to put out the fire. he was unable to maintain power as he Just before midnight, a track worker guided the loaded oil train over the Sher- from the Lac-Mégantic area called the brooke Subdivision’s roller-coaster profile. Farnham dispatcher and told him that he He also noted that when he had arrived at had been contacted by the Nantes Fire from Lac-Mégantic arrived at the train and Nantes the locomotive was spewing black- Department about the blaze. The track met with two firefighters. He was told by and-white smoke. The dispatcher and worker told the dispatcher that the fire firefighters that the fire was out and that Harding agreed to leave the engine as it was out but that someone should be sent the locomotive had also been turned off to was and have the next crew, who would to the siding to check on the train. A prevent it from reigniting. The MM&A take the train from Nantes to Brownville track foreman from Lac-Mégantic was employee relayed the information back to Junction, Maine, deal with it in the morn- called to check it out. the dispatcher who told him to leave the ing. Shortly after ending the conversation, After talking to the track worker, the train as it was. The track foreman left the the taxi from Lac-Mégantic arrived. dispatcher called Harding at his hotel in scene at approximately 12:44 a.m. As Harding put his grip in the cab, the Lac-Mégantic and told him that the train While the train appeared to be station- driver asked about the smoking locomotive No. 2 had caught fire and that the lead lo- ary to the MM&A employee and the fire- that was spewing oil on the vehicle’s wind- comotive, No. 5017, was shut down. Hard- fighters, unbeknownst to them, the air shield. “The engine’s busted,” Harding said ing said that was the only engine he had brakes had been slowly releasing ever as he climbed in. left running and then asked if he should go since the engine had been shut down. At Two hours later, the back to the train to 12:58 a.m., train No. 2 began to roll same train that Hard- start another engine. toward Lac-Mégantic. ing had parked at a re- The dispatcher told Within 10 minutes the train was mote siding in Que- UNBEKNOWNST TO Harding that another already halfway to Lac-Mégantic and bec’s Eastern THEM, THE AIR BRAKES employee was heading reaching speeds of 25 mph on the down- Townships would be at to the site and that the grade. One of the firefighters from Nantes the center of the worst HAD BEEN SLOWLY engines would be re- was on his way home when he approached railroad accident in RELEASING EVER SINCE started in the morning. a railroad crossing just west of town. The modern Canadian and At approximately firefighter later said that he saw the train U.S. history. THE ENGINE HAD BEEN 12:30 a.m. on July 6, roll by with no lights on. The derailment of the track foreman who Seven minutes later, its speed had MM&A train No. 2 SHUT DOWN. had been dispatched doubled. A minute after that it was moving An aerial image shows a cleanup crew at 65 mph as it passed the Catholic church their lives. The Quebec Coroner’s office working in a burned-out Lac-Mégantic, on the edge of downtown and rounded the later determined that those who were not Quebec, on July 9, 2013, three days after curve over the Rue Laval crossing. As the able to get out of the bar in the first few the disastrous derailment that killed 47 train entered the Lac-Mégantic yard and moments of the fire most likely died of people. Canadian Press via Associated Press rounded the curve, the locomotives uncou- asphyxiation. The fire from the derailed pled from the buffer car and continued to train was so massive that it sucked all the his hotel. At 1:48 a.m., Harding called the roll east. The buffer car and the first few oxygen from inside the building and the Farnham dispatcher to tell him that tank cars rolled off the tracks and on to windows and doors imploded. downtown Lac-Mégantic was on fire. their sides. The other cars began to accor- The first 911 call came 2 minutes after However, there was confusion as to what dion into a pile over the west switch of the the train derailed. Twelve minutes after that started the blaze because there were no yard. A fire started almost immediately and Sûreté du Québec called the MM&A dis- hazardous material cars in the yard and massive explosions filled the sky over patcher in Farnham and told him that there the only two trains in the area, MM&A downtown Lac-Mégantic. Burning oil was a fire in the rail yard at Lac-Mégantic Nos. 1 and 2, were parked east and west of began to run down the streets. and that they believed it was the train that town, respectively. Within a matter of minutes half of had been sitting at Or so they thought. downtown Lac-Mégantic was on fire. Near Nantes. The dis- During the next 50 minutes, MM&A the epicenter of the inferno was Musi- patcher told the of- employees frantically tried to figure out Café, a local music venue along the tracks ficer that an what had exploded in the yard and, accord- that was packed that Friday night. Survi- MM&A employee ing to a Transportation Safety Board of vors later told newspapers that they felt a would be on scene Canada report, there were multiple phone rumble and then seconds later saw the as soon as possible. calls made starting at 1:50 a.m. Soon after, orange reflection of a fireball on the build- Meanwhile, the the dispatcher received a report that a train ings across the street. One survivor told explosions had rat- had been seen rolling into Lac-Mégantic the Globe and Mail newspaper that it was tled Harding, the earlier in the night. The dispatcher sent the “brighter than the middle of the day, a locomotive engi- track foreman who had checked train No. 2 blinding, lively orange.” Everyone ran for neer, out of bed at Michael Harding an hour earlier back to Nantes to check on © 2018 Kalmbach Media Co.