Train Disaster That Brought An Entire Town To The Verge Of Destruction

With the destruction caused by the train The city that turned into a place of apocalypse, It entered the world’s agenda about 11 years ago with the damage it left behind.

Well, unprecedented What were the reasons behind this train disaster?

On July 5, 2013, a freight train started heading east through Canada.

This train; It was traveling from New Town, North Dakota, to an oil refinery in Saint John, Canada. It had 72 tankers loaded with approximately 113,000 liters of crude oil and would provide the necessary power to drive it. It consisted of 5 locomotives.

The only engineer on this train approaching Lac-Mégantic at night was Tom Harding. Harding, the lead locomotive during the journey emits excessive amounts of smoke He noticed and decided that he had to leave the train.

But first he had to secure the train.

For this, he applied more than one handbrake to all 5 locomotives, thus allowing them to be parked on a downward slope. He checked whether the train could stay in place.

After this move, he contacted the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway and told them about the excessive amount of smoke being released. No solution was suggested with this contact, and Harding left the train where it was and dealt with this problem. He decided to take care of it the next morning.

But before morning, a small fire broke out in the chimney of one of the locomotives.

Although the cause of this fire could not be determined at first, the fire and excessive smoke later It was caused by a bad repair done to the engine a few months ago. appeared. Firefighters arrived at the scene soon and turned off the locomotives to prevent the fuel in the train from catching fire.

The fire was quickly brought under control and the train was confirmed safe to continue the journey, but all was not well. Because the locomotives were shut down compressors that supply air to air brakes was also closed.

For this reason, air was leaking from the system and the pressure in the air brake system It was falling little by little until it was no longer enough to hold the train in place. Subsequently, the huge train began rolling downhill a few minutes after the last firefighter left the scene.

This train, which no one could control, was accelerating with each passing minute.

When he reached Lac-Mégantic with his heavy engine power, he was traveling at a speed of approximately 105 kilometers per hour. This speed is the road It was too much for the part of town that passed through it.

There was no light or warning except for sparks and smoke coming from the train’s wheels. Finally the train stopped near the main street of the city. It derailed and spilled the oil inside.

This situation is perceived by those around as a to the fire tsunami and the city center turned into a burning river. Those who saw the train approaching tried to escape from the area, but the flames were spreading quite quickly.

The damage caused by the train was so extensive that buildings were flooded, streets were covered in fire, and sewers and basements were filled with burning oil.

Musi-Café, one of the hardest-hit areas in Lac-Mégantic, was still full of customers at the time of the disaster, and the building was completely unusable. Only Those who managed to escape as soon as they saw the accident He had survived.

Emergency response began immediately and more than 100 firefighters rushed to the area. This liquid fuel spreads unexpectedly, It was flowing into the sewers and even basements a few blocks away were exploding.

Firefighters close sewers and fire barriers and then resorted to using foam to fight the flames. Meanwhile, the local hospital of the region was also alerted.

While very few of the injured people caused by the disaster survived, a total of 47 people lost their lives.

Moreover More than 30 buildings were destroyed, Thousands of residents and hundreds of businesses were displaced. Almost most of Lac-Mégantic was destroyed and it took 2 days for the flames to be extinguished.

After the incident, an investigation was launched and it was revealed that several factors were effective in causing the disaster. Tom Harding, the train’s engineer, before leaving the train. He didn’t pull the handbrake enough.

Harding used 7 handbrakes, but for a train of this size and weight, this number more than twice should have been implemented. In addition, the air brakes had to be turned off in order for the handbrake to perform fully.

Three people, including Tom Harding and two other railroad workers, were tried on 47 counts of criminal negligence causing death.

Although there was considerable public outrage about the disaster, the fault actually lay with the railway company. The company provides minimal training, used old tankers, It was determined that he took the easy way out of the repairs and turned a blind eye to many other mistakes.

Considering these factors, Harding and 2 other employees were acquitted. But the destroyed city of Lac-Mégantic and 47 people who died It was not possible to bring it back.

Moreover, footage of the Lac-Mégantic disaster was first used in a time travel-themed TV series called Travelers and later in the movie Bird Box. Lac-Mégantic Mayor Julie Morin shared these images Saying that it is quite difficult to even see it in the news bulletins. He stated that these images should not be used as if they were imaginary.

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