The MMA claimed that its braking policy required the activation of hand brakes on the five locomotives and 11 freight cars, or The TSB found that MMA's operating plan was to leave the train parked on the main line, unattended, with an unlocked locomotive cab, alongside a public highway where it was accessible to the general public, with no additional protection.

He said he wanted to call the U. Witnesses recall seeing the train seemingly unattended and in distress around that night. Our protocol calls for us to shut down an engine because it is the only way to stop the fuel from circulating into the fire. MMA did not grant permission to the engineer to return to the scene, instead summoning a track maintenance foreman unfamiliar with the operation of railway air brakes. With all the locomotives shut down, the air compressor no longer supplied air to the air brake system.

As air leaked from the brake system, the main air reservoirs were slowly depleted, gradually reducing the effectiveness of the locomotive air brakes. He stated that the crossing had activated and was warning of an oncoming train, but after waiting for some time, he heard no horn or any signal that a train was approaching. Thinking that the crossing was malfunctioning, he proceeded over the intersection when just as he had finished crossing, a train without its headlights or horn passed through at a very fast speed.

Montminy recognized that it was the same train he had responded to hours earlier, and quickly returned to Nantes to inform other firefighters about what he had just witnessed.

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Just before the derailment, witnesses recalled observing the train passing through the crossing at an excessive speed with no locomotive lights, "infernal" noise and sparks being emitted from the wheels. Travelling with no signals, the train jumped the track, sending a river of burning oil into the lake. There was no warning. It was a black blob that came out of nowhere.

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I realized they were oil tankers and they were going to blow up, so I yelled that to my friends and I got out of there. If we had stayed where we were, we would have been roasted. Heat from the fires was felt as far as 2 kilometres 1. As the blazing oil flowed over the ground, it entered the town's storm sewer and emerged as huge fires towering from other storm sewer drains, manholes , and even chimneys and basements of buildings in the area.

They went out and started running. Other patrons and employees told some survivors that the tremors were an earthquake and that it would be better to stay under a table. Of those that went out, not all survived. Some were not able to outrun a "tsunami of fire".

The locomotives and the VB car were found intact, separated from the rest of the train approximately metres 0. Nine tank cars at the rear of the train remained on the track and were pulled away from the derailment site and did not explode. Almost all of the derailed tank cars were damaged, many having large breaches. About six million litres of petroleum crude oil were quickly released; the fire began almost immediately.

Around firefighters were deployed to the scene, described as looking like a "war zone". The local hospital went to Code Orange , anticipating a high number of casualties and requesting reinforcements from other medical centres, but they received no seriously injured patients. A Canadian Red Cross volunteer said there were "no wounded. They're all dead". Another 1, people were evacuated later during the day because of toxic fumes.

Some took refuge in an emergency shelter established by the Red Cross in a local high school. According to initial claims made by the railway, the engineer who left the train unattended went to the explosion zone and uncoupled the last 9 undamaged tank cars that were still on the tracks at the end of the derailment.

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After uncoupling the tank cars, he used a rail car mover to pull them away from the derailment site. Tafisa, a local particleboard industry that moves much of its product by rail, has a rail car mover which has the capability to deactivate the brakes on the cars it tows. When they could not find a level crossing to move the rail car mover back to the disaster site, they used a loader to remove another 4 tank cars, 2 at a time. Because the loader lacked equipment to deactivate railcar brakes, Harding told the men to use the loader to break the air lines on cars to release the air brakes on each of these four cars.

After 20 hours, the centre of the fire was still inaccessible to firefighters [4] and five pools of fuel were still burning. A red zone was declared in which evacuees could not return to their homes because of the ongoing investigation. Forty-two bodies were found and transported to Montreal to be identified. At least 30 buildings were destroyed in the centre of town, including the town's library, a historic former bank, and other businesses and houses.

Very old buildings, heritage and architecture all disappeared and at the beginning, no one realized the magnitude and now we are starting to understand the consequences. A number of businesses had to operate from temporary locations outside the downtown, [] with reduced facilities [] until new buildings could be constructed elsewhere, as cleanup efforts were expected to take a year or more. All but of the evacuated residents were allowed to return to their homes in the afternoon of the third day; [] all but were able to return by the sixth day.

After the accident, the railway's safety record was called into question: over the previous decade the firm recorded a higher accident rate than the rest of the U. In the previous year, the railroad had On August 13, , the Canadian Transportation Agency suspended the railway's Certificate of Fitness [] effective August 20 because of its failure to obtain adequate insurance coverage, [] shutting down the line. In Maine, state transportation authorities have contacted all rival freight operators in-state to establish a contingency plan; if MMA ceases operation, U.

We will review our legal options. In separate developments also occurring on August 22, , the New Brunswick and Maine Railway company, a division of the J. Irving conglomerate, indicated its interest to acquire the troubled MMA railway, [] and the Canadian Transportation Agency indicated it would review insurance coverage of federally chartered railways at some point "in the fall". Szabo wrote to the MMA the following day, stating that "I was shocked to see that you changed your operating procedures to use two-person crews on trains in Canada, but not in the United States.

Because the risk associated with this accident also exists in the United States, it is my expectation that the same safety procedures will apply to your operations. On that date, a test train carrying particle board from the local Tafisa factory to Sherbrooke rolled through the town centre.

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There are plans to reroute the tracks outside the town by changing the track's route between Nantes and Frontenac , but no time table has been set. A new design of tank car, the TC is the new standard. In a letter to Harper, U. President Barack Obama expressed condolences for the "devastating loss of life" and offered American help, if needed. Keith Stewart, Climate and Energy Campaign Coordinator with Greenpeace Canada, criticized Canada's energy policy within hours of the tragedy, saying that "whether it's pipelines or rail, we have a safety problem in this country.

This is more evidence that the federal government continues to put oil profits ahead of public safety. In its August report, the TSB identified 18 distinct causes and contributing factors, which included leaving the train unattended on a main line, failure to set enough hand brakes, the lack of a backup safety mechanism, poor maintenance on the locomotive and several failures of training and oversight. No hand brakes had been applied on 72 of the cars. The United Steelworkers union in Quebec, which represents the engineer and controller, has denounced the failure to lay charges against CEO Ed Burkhardt, [] and is raising funds for the legal defence of unionised workers whom it identifies as scapegoats.

The defective locomotive MMA , a key piece of evidence in the criminal enquiry, inexplicably turned up at the former MMA Derby Yard in Milo, Maine , as part of a collection of equipment destined to an August auction on behalf of the Bangor Savings Bank, a creditor. Following a jury selection process that lasted three weeks, the trial of three people in connection with the disaster began on October 2, The locomotive engineer , rail traffic controller , and operations manager were each charged with 47 counts of criminal negligence causing death and faced a sentence of life imprisonment if convicted.



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The prosecution called a total of 36 witnesses and the trial was scheduled to finish in December The trial was adjourned until January 3, The disaster site was so heavily contaminated with benzene that firefighters and investigators in the first month worked in fifteen-minute shifts due to heat and toxic conditions. This rendered vessels and docks inaccessible until they can be removed from the water and decontaminated, [] a process which was to take until late August to complete.

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A hundred residents were not expected to return home until mid [ needs update ] as the ground beneath their still-standing houses was contaminated with oil; [] some homes in the most-contaminated areas might never be habitable. Because the cleanup of the derailment area could take 5 years, about businesses were planning to relocate. Subsequent reconstruction on the site may initially be impractical as new buildings would require deeper foundations until the new fill settles.

For businesses, the move was expected to be permanent.



Workers at the downtown site expressed concern that cleanup efforts were being delayed by management, leaving workers often idle on-site and allowing work to proceed only at a snail's pace. In December , local residents were given one last chance to tour what remained of the downtown before demolition. Residents were asked to limit their water consumption as the lake was not able to supply the daily needs of the town.

Environmentalists have reported heavy contamination from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and believe arsenic levels to be well above legal limits. In Quebec, MMA continued operation from Farnham with a skeleton staff after the derailment, having laid off 19 of its 75 workers without notice on July 19 [] and an additional five on July 30; [] these workers have not received severance and vacation pay owed. Local governments in various communities across Canada have expressed concern not only that railways are exempted from all local regulations as they are under federal jurisdiction but that information on the content of dangerous goods shipments is being deliberately, systematically withheld from municipal leaders whose duties include disaster planning and emergency response.

On August 23, , the Federation of Canadian Municipalities rail safety working group urged the Federal government to act swiftly on rail safety. The FCM working group had three recommendations: []. Magog mayor Vicky May Hamm made an Access to Information Act enquiry for track inspection data, train scheduling information and products transported. The federal response acknowledged that inspections found three problematic track sections, but provided no further information.

While US authorities have made Maine track inspection data available quickly, the Canadian government is expected to take eight months to a year to comply with the Access to Information Act enquiries. According to the Brandon Sun , the Brandon Police Service and Brandon Fire Department indicate they are not provided dangerous goods lists by rail companies.

Vaudreuil-Dorion mayor Guy Pilon has asked that municipalities be permitted to limit the speed of trains in populated areas, as homes and schools built fifty years ago near rail lines then carrying wood, grain and cereals are now endangered by high-speed hazardous goods trains. During an annual premiers' conference, the Council of the Federation, provincial leaders called for stricter requirements for liability insurance for rail carriers, real-time information on content and location of dangerous goods trains for officials at all levels of government and a federally supported national emergency response program.

The premiers of Quebec and all four Atlantic provinces, as well as all six New England governors, have called for stricter federal regulation of dangerous goods by rail in both nations. Under that law, a company conducting activities or holding materials which could cause a major disaster would be required to disclose these risks to municipalities, indicating the potential damage and any contingency plans. In Maine, where oil-by-rail has attracted environmental protests, [] the state legislature voted 91—52 for a study on transportation of crude oil through the state. The proposed study was vetoed by the state's governor [] and the Maine Department of Transportation Maine DOT has no plans to review movements of crude oil through Maine.

Maine's US representatives Michaud and Pingree proposed The Safe Freight Act, a federal bill requiring two-person crews on freight trains, and are demanding the older DOT design be replaced by sturdier cars for dangerous goods shipments. The U. The Maine Department of Transportation is working to establish contingency plans for local industry which uses MMA's rail lines. The state has contacted every Maine freight rail operator, seeking a trustee who could keep the line running should MMA cease operations. On July 7, PM Stephen Harper described the area as a "war zone" and claimed the federal Cabinet would have the proper authorities "conduct a very complete investigation and act on the recommendations".

The disaster has drawn criticisms of federal deregulation of the rail industry in Canada. The Public Service Alliance of Canada , which represents inspectors at Transport Canada , has objected to a pattern of fewer inspections, deferred maintenance of rail lines already in poor condition and an increasing number of cars on each train, going as far as to label the Government of Canada as "complicit" in the disaster.

In Canada, federal regulation requires rail carriers carry adequate third-party liability insurance but does not legislate a specific dollar minimum in coverage. The Environmental Petitions [] process of the federal Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development is one avenue for citizen redress, whereby the Minister is required to answer within days.

In December , the Commissioner on Environment and Sustainable Development, a branch of the Auditor General of Canada , recommended [] to address weaknesses in the oversight of the transportation of dangerous goods.