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80 missing as train carrying oil derails and explodes in small Canadian town

The accident in the Quebec town, located around 250 kilometers east of Montreal, created a fireball and forced 2,000 people from their homes.

(AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Paul Chiasson)

AT LEAST 80 people are missing after a driverless oil tanker train derailed and exploded in the small Canadian town of Lac-Megantic, destroying dozens of buildings.

The accident in the  Quebec town, located around 250 kilometers east of Montreal, created a fireball and forced 2,000 people from their homes.

Officials earlier only confirmed one fatality, but had warned the toll could rise. A search for bodies was to begin this morning at dawn.

A statement from the train company, The Montreal, Maine & Atlantic , they have “reports of a number of fatalities and injuries” and although “emergency response teams are at the site coordinating rescue efforts, access to the site is limited while they continue to fight the fires”.

The firefighter said on condition of anonymity that there had been at least 50 people in one bar that was consumed by the flames.

Smoke rises from railway cars that were carrying crude oil after derailing in downtown Lac Megantic, Quebec, Canada. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Paul Chiasson)

Witnesses reported as many as six explosions after the train derailed in Lac-Megantic, a picturesque resort town of 6,000 residents near the border with the US state of Maine.

Michel Brunet, a spokesman for Quebec’s provincial police, said late Saturday the official death toll remained at one but added: “We expect there will be more fatalities.”

An initial evacuation zone of a kilometer around the crash site was widened as a precaution against harmful particles in the air, bringing the total to 2,000 people forced to leave their homes.

Residents wait outside an emergency centre for news of family and friends following the train derailment. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Paul Chiasson)

Around 150 firefighters were battling the blaze, including some who came across the border from Maine, just 25 kilometers south of the town.

The Montreal Maine & Atlantic (MMA) train consisted of five locomotives and 72 rail cars and was carrying oil from the US state of North Dakota, said the company’s vice president of marketing, Joe McGonigle.

More to follow

- Additional reporting AFP, 2013

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16 Comments
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    Mute OU812
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    Jul 5th 2013, 1:44 PM

    Actually, now that VAT is mentioned, since when is the ability to cook or heat your home/water a luxury ? I would have thought especially in Ireland (most of the time, not this week of course), that heat is an essential (if you have the ability to pay for it) and that there should be no VAT on it

    282
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    Mute Sheik Yahbouti
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    Jul 5th 2013, 2:33 PM

    OU812, you are absolutely correct. High VAT rates applied to items which are essentials rather than luxuries is an outrage and a symptom of the total lack of regard of this Government for the ordinary citizen. I have been reliably informed that the top VAT rate applies to womens’ sanitary protection!!! Since when should these products be deemed ‘ luxuries’, dear me, dear me. It appears that the oul’ fellahs in charge have not considered this matter.

    222
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    Mute R H Beige Lark
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    Jul 5th 2013, 3:17 PM

    It does seem like scaremongering. It’s always the same when the government loses a source of revenue. They harp on about the dangers of smoking so they can continually increase the taxes and then get very upset because they aren’t getting the revenue on cigarettes supllied by the black market. What’s the message there? We need you to be killing yourself with our cigarettes not somebody elses?

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    Mute Brian Whelan
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    Jul 5th 2013, 3:26 PM

    Sanitary ware is vat free

    9
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    Mute _doesnotcompute
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    Jul 5th 2013, 4:52 PM

    @OU812 – VAT is not charged at the highest level on things like electricity and gas. It is charged at the second-highest level. Although you have a point, there is room there to reduce the VAT rate on gas/electricity.

    55
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    Mute _doesnotcompute
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    Jul 5th 2013, 4:58 PM

    @Brian Whelan. I was charged at a higher rate of VAT on toilet roll a few weeks ago. I queried this with my wife (an accountant), who explained that I had purchased the fancy aloe-vera-laced bog roll, which has a higher rate of VAT applied to it than the cheaper “recycled” sandpaper-style bog roll (which would, of course, have the 0% rate of VAT applied to it). The theory being that a person who buys the “fancy” toilet paper only does so because they can afford to. A person who is less well off as my good self would settle for the cheaper stuff.

    Perhaps the ladies’ products in question were a more upmarket “fancy” brand than the bog standard “does the bare minimum” cheaper product?

    47
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    Mute Gráinne Ní Bhriain
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    Jul 5th 2013, 6:22 PM

    cause they want us to go around like stonge age women because there all men they dont know hard it is for women its not a luxury for is as we have no say it happens

    37
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    Mute Fagan Fagan
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    Jul 5th 2013, 12:45 PM

    This is what happens when you have austerity people are forced to do dangerous things in order to provide for there family’s and its only going to get worse

    265
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    Mute executioner
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    Jul 5th 2013, 8:51 PM

    That’s a stupid comment ,these thugs have money for other things like drink and drugs,and regular foreign holidays,most decent, honest people will reduce ,budget or use alternative energy.

    49
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    Mute Fagan Fagan
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    Jul 5th 2013, 8:58 PM

    how do you know there thugs drunks or drug addicts
    are you psychic….oh i get it you work for bord gais

    70
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    Mute Sean Burke
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    Jul 5th 2013, 11:28 PM

    Now that’s a stupid comment! Unless of course you happen to know the person behind this scam? Along with knowing how much this person drinks, drugs, where they go on holidays, etc.

    20
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    Mute Keith Fealy
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    Jul 6th 2013, 1:36 AM

    *they’re

    2
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    Mute Karl Paul
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    Jul 5th 2013, 12:35 PM

    There really are some irresponsible knobs out there.

    234
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    Mute the lost lenore
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    Jul 5th 2013, 12:38 PM

    That’s gas.

    181
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    Mute Enola Straight
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    Jul 5th 2013, 1:05 PM

    Clowns

    52
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    Mute CD
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    Jul 5th 2013, 7:12 PM

    Natural gas, the new natural selection.

    28
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    Mute Conor Mac An Ucaire
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    Jul 5th 2013, 1:41 PM

    The real scandal is the VAT and Carbon Tax on peoples gas bills.

    155
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    Mute Aindriú de Domhain
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    Jul 5th 2013, 1:19 PM

    Unfortunately, hard times will lead more people to do things like this. I’m not especially condemning them, as I understand what you’ll do if you’re desperate. But there’s serious risk with messing around with utilities like gas or electric.

    109
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    Mute Stuart O Connor
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    Jul 5th 2013, 2:13 PM

    Scaremongering
    He just reversed the dial using magnets. Risk of explosion
    Baaashahhhaasssssaaaaa

    91
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    Mute Mr Jingles
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    Jul 5th 2013, 9:03 PM

    They don’t use magnets on those meters.

    18
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    Mute Erin Smith
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    Jul 5th 2013, 9:13 PM

    Actually, they generally reverse the safety valve within the meter causing it not to register usage. It’s highly dangerous

    25
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    Mute Elena Garvey
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    Jul 5th 2013, 4:04 PM

    What is scary is the overpriced charges for gas (and electricity) in the first place! Ripped off left, right and centre…..Extortion!!!!!

    73
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    Mute Simon Pierse
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    Jul 5th 2013, 12:37 PM

    Number for bord Gais networks should be 1850 200 694

    71
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    Mute Gav O Sullivan
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    Jul 5th 2013, 3:12 PM

    Good Man Simon

    16
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    Mute Brian Bolton
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    Jul 5th 2013, 2:18 PM

    Act now to eliminate the possibility of bord gais losing any more money more like.

    64
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    Mute Tim Lawson
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    Jul 5th 2013, 3:49 PM

    Silly comment

    10
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    Mute Darragh O Meara
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    Jul 5th 2013, 3:53 PM

    Doesn’t just happen with gas, it happens with the electricity too. I know a few people who get the majority of their electricity for free. Seems to be really picking up since the recession. Desperate times lead to desperate measures.

    60
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    Mute Brian O Cinneide
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    Jul 5th 2013, 5:52 PM

    The word is most. Majority only refers to people.

    15
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    Mute Enola Straight
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    Jul 6th 2013, 8:05 PM

    Honest people will pay their way. The ones doing this probably have wads of cash and are jumping on a bandwagon.

    1
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    Mute Goebong
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    Jul 5th 2013, 3:33 PM

    Ha ha comments disappearing tut tut the journal is ruined as bad as rte

    60
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    Mute Noble Gas
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    Jul 5th 2013, 2:40 PM

    It’s widespread. 200 is just the tip of the iceberg.

    54
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    Mute Elena Garvey
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    Jul 5th 2013, 4:07 PM

    In my opinion, what’s really scary is the price of gas (and electricity) in the first place! Total rip off! Extortion springs to mind!!

    34
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    Mute Gahan Frost
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    Jul 5th 2013, 6:32 PM

    i don’t believe there was any danger or gas leaks . This article is just attempt to scare people off.

    33
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    Mute Darragh O Meara
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    Jul 5th 2013, 7:17 PM

    There’s a major danger if the supply is re routed away from the meter and its done by someone who doesn’t know what their doing. However a fiddle with the card is hardly gonna cause a leak.

    29
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    Mute Erin Smith
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    Jul 5th 2013, 9:16 PM

    Usually it’s the valves and piping that are tampered with. The gas card doesn’t come into it

    18
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    Mute Joe
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    Jul 5th 2013, 6:19 PM

    Just cos it runs trough the meter doesnt making any safer surely, I wonder what scare mongering they’ll be feeding us when people are offsetting there water before it hits the meter when the water charges are introduced.

    30
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    Mute Neil Carroll
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    Jul 5th 2013, 6:26 PM

    our kids will drown or ours dogs will bark in tongue.

    16
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    Mute Brian O Cinneide
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    Jul 5th 2013, 2:42 PM

    When I was young you put a shilling in the gas meter and another when that ran out. Every so often a man from the Gas Company would come and read the meter and empty the box. No problem.

    29
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    Mute R H Beige Lark
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    Jul 5th 2013, 7:41 PM

    Oh look. A whole conversation questioning/denying the truth of the “danger” of the interference with the meters has been deleted by the editors who clearly would hate for there to be a rational conversation on the matter. Clears the way for more waffle I suppose.

    26
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    Mute Andrew Lynch
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    Jul 5th 2013, 2:38 PM

    #catatrophe #safetyrisks #scaremongering

    23
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    Mute Josephine Carroll
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    Jul 5th 2013, 5:50 PM

    call it scaremongering….until something does actually happen that is due to tampering.

    22
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    Mute Neil Carroll
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    Jul 5th 2013, 6:23 PM

    the burning question is does any one care.

    12
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    Mute Frank Donaghy
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    Jul 6th 2013, 8:13 AM

    no problem gettin a good plumber to do it lots of them unemployed;there is no danger its just gas without a meter,theres no meter on a super ser and its not classed as a danger

    11
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    Mute Rufus Hound
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    Jul 6th 2013, 9:50 AM

    Super sers SHOULD be classed as a danger! Have you spent any time in a room with one…?!

    1
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    Mute Ronan Sexton
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    Jul 6th 2013, 8:39 AM

    Absolute nonsense. Like the old TV license ad years ago with the mythological van out on the road that had superpowers and could detect your telly. Rubbish.

    7
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    Mute Dennis Meredith
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    Jul 6th 2013, 6:48 AM

    Thank the Lord above for turf no fear of that blowing up….

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    Mute yo
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    Jul 6th 2013, 7:34 AM

    But you will get a sore back saving it

    6
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    Mute Derek J Mc Greevy
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    Jul 5th 2013, 4:59 PM
    4
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    Mute executioner
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    Jul 6th 2013, 1:24 PM

    Gas them all I say,anyone that gets this done is a lowlife thug,plenty of money for foreign holidays and drink.middle class always left to pick up the tab.

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    Mute steven hill
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    Jul 6th 2013, 5:10 PM

    It’s done with the end of a coat hanger I seen it being done and its safe

    1
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