Quebec Train Fire Death Toll Expected To Rise As Fires Continue To Rage

A Quebec train fire has left a town destroyed and one person dead, with officials expecting to find more fatalities once the fires have all been put out.

The fire was caused by the derailment of a train carrying crude oil. It sparked an explosion in the eastern Quebec town of Lac-Megantic, sending residents fleeing for safety as fires down large portions of the town. The fires continued to burn late into Saturday and into early Sunday, nearly 24 hours after the train derailed.

Officials said the Quebec train fire has already claimed one life and forced 2,000 people to leave their homes in the small lakeside town. The Quebec provincial police said could not give an estimate of how many people died in the Quebec train fire, but said that many people are still missing.

“I don’t want to get into numbers, what I will say is we do expect we’ll have other people who will be found deceased unfortunately,” said Lt. Guy Lapointe, a spokesman with Quebec provincial police. Lapointe added that many residents are calling to report missing family members, adding to the confusion as multiple people have called to report the same person missing.

The train derailed at close to 1 am on Saturday, sending flames through a downtown area that is packed with bars and attracts many people on weekend nights.

Officials blame the derailment on a runaway train. Rail World Inc., the parent company of the train operator, said the train had been parked after an engineer finished his run.

“If brakes aren’t properly applied on a train, it’s going to run away,” said Edward Burkhardt, Rail World Inc. CEO. “But we think the brakes were properly applied on this train.”

The investigation into the Quebec train fire and rescue efforts were hampered Saturday as officials feared there could be more explosions. At least 30 buildings had been destroyed by late Saturday, with many fires still raging.