Category Archives: Lac-Mégantic

Remembrance: A year ago, Lac-Mégantic, Quebec

Repost from The Martinez News-Gazette

A year ago: Lac-Mégantic, Quebec

By Guy Cooper | July 13, 2014

I can’t help thinking of them, the 47 lives suddenly snuffed a year ago, July 6, by a runaway oil train that incinerated that downtown and fostered a firestorm of outrage, fear and controversy across this continent about the haste, greed and disregard that deliver oil trains threatening our communities with death and disaster.

I knew none of them, but feel a kinship for another small, quaint, historic railroad town of antique brick buildings clustered by train tracks aside a waterfront park, alive on a warm summer night with music, laughter and camaraderie amongst good friends.

The Musi-Cafe was the place to gather in Lac-Mégantic on such a night, not unlike what you would encounter at Armando’s, the Sunflower, Barrel Aged, Roxx’s and other gathering places on a pleasant summer evening in Martinez. By 1 a.m. you might imagine the patrons were quite animated with libations and good cheer. Then things went horribly wrong.

(The following account is drawn, sometimes verbatim, from an article published Nov. 28, 2013, by Justin Giovannetti in the Toronto Globe and Mail, entitled “Last moments of Lac-Mégantic: Survivors share their stories.” His portrayal is heart-wrenching. I urge you to read it. I attempt to provide a sense of the tragedy from that account.)

Yvon Ricard and Guy Bolduc, great friends and popular musicians at the Musi-Cafe, had just finished a set about 1:10 a.m. July 6. Yvon went out onto the terrace for a smoke while Guy chatted with people at the bar. Outside, Yvon’s conversation with waitress Maude Verreault was suddenly interrupted by an insistent clanging at the rail crossing.

Luc Dion and Julie Heon also sat on the terrace, quietly staring into each other’s eyes, their beers untouched. A chance meeting that night brought the couple together in person, after having chatted online for weeks. Julie’s friend, Karine, left them alone with a wink and returned inside to the bar. At 1:14 a.m., these star-crossed lovers noticed a blur at the edge of their vision, heard a strong wind and felt the ground shake. They leapt to their feet, instinctively knowing what was coming.

Bar owner Yannick Gagne attempted to leave earlier to pick up his kids from the babysitter and go home, his pregnant wife staying behind at the bar to help out till about 1 a.m. It wasn’t easy to leave. The place was packed, about 80 patrons inside and another 40 on the terrace. Several group celebrations were going on, birthdays and such. Friends at the bar tried to tempt Yannick to stay and down shooters with them. They teased. He didn’t get out of there till 12:30.

Karine Blanchette also waitressed there, but this night left early and didn’t get back till about 1 a.m. She was tired and couldn’t find a parking spot, so drove on home after enthusiastically waving and yelling greetings to those on the terrace.

Estel Blanchet, recently back from her last year of high school, exchanged goodbyes with her mom, Natachat Gaudreau, and headed home. Her mom went on to the Musi-Cafe with a friend to catch the live music she loved. Lying in bed later, daughter Estel thought nothing of the sound of sirens outside on the street. By 1 a.m. her mother sat alone in the bar by the stage.

Rene Simard, a local art teacher, along with a young friend Melissa Roy, arrived that evening to meet many other friends, parking his brand new Mini Cooper right out front. Late that night, Rene made it out to the terrace for a smoke after multiple detours to chat with old friends and former students. There, he was joined by his friend Frederic Fortin. It was only a moment later they felt something like an earthquake and saw the train speed by.

Christian Lafontaine and his brother Gaetan were both there with their wives and many friends. By 1 a.m. they were by the bar getting set to leave. As Christian waited to pay the bill, Gaetan’s wife headed to the bathroom. Suddenly, there were two earthquake-like shocks, the second much more violent than the first. Christian and his wife looked at each other with alarm and hastened towards the front door, while an apprehensive Gaetan took off looking for his wife. The bar suddenly went pitch black then lit up a blinding orange.

One tanker car after another derailed, momentum piling up a tortured metal edifice three stories high containing over 1.8 million gallons of crude oil. A panicked crowd desperately tried to flee or find shelter. Out the front door in seconds, Christian and his wife raced away from the street-wide wall of fire coming towards them. Yvon Ricard, initially shocked into immobility at the sight of an immense mushroom cloud, was jolted by the heat of burning oil to frantically run with four others towards the lake until they no longer felt the searing heat on their backs. Rene Simard stumbled disoriented as he ran from the terrace of the Musi-Cafe. His friend Frederic pulled him to his feet, and as they ran for the Mini Cooper, it exploded. It was parked on the side of the building away from the tracks. When he saw what happened to his car there, he knew those still inside the bar behind him were dead. They continued running.

Luc and Julie jumped off the terrace and ran between houses towards the lake. They became separated. She ran towards her home across what would soon become a charred landscape. By the time Luc reached the lake the park was burning, flaming oil was spilling into the water, and a look back towards the town revealed four blocks of the downtown on fire. Waves of flames washed over the Musi-Cafe.

Yannick’s wife made it home just before the train derailment. Then, in response to a frantic call, Yannick tried to make it back to the bar, but the way was blocked. He broke down and cried like a baby. The goodbye earlier that evening was the last time Estel saw her mother alive. Christian’s wife lost her best friend. The bodies of Christian’s brother, Gaetan, and his wife Joanie were found together at the back of the bar. The coroner told families of the victims that most asphyxiated as the fire quickly consumed all the oxygen. Rene Simard, distraught by the loss of so many friends, did not return to teaching. Luc and Julie both survived and are still together as of five months following the disaster. The musician Yvon returned safely that night to his terrified wife and two daughters, but with no news of his friend and music partner to offer Guy’s wife and two teenagers. Guy perished.

All told, 47 lives were lost, 27 children orphaned, the heart and soul of the town destroyed.

Lac-Mégantic Memorial – Benicia California, Rev. Dr. Mary Susan Gast

We remember those who died and those who grieve and those who heal and rebuild in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec.  On the evening of July 10, 2014, Benicians For a Safe and Healthy Community gathered in remembrance, bearing 47 sunflowers representing the 47 who were killed by a runaway crude oil train just over a year ago on July 6, 2013.  Our own Rev. Dr. Mary Susan Gast offered the following meditation and prayer.

Lac-Mégantic Memorial
10 July 2014

We gather today in remembrance
Of forty-seven people
Whose death came without warning, and with fiery finality,
An hour or so after midnight just over a year ago
In a small town in Quebec.
Death came without malice aforethought,  but seemingly with dire whimsy,
To those who slept in their beds,
Or worked the night shift,
Or left the bar early,
In the blast zone of tank cars running off the tracks, laden with explosive crude oil.

We gather today because the strange geography of compassion
brings what has struck far away
close to home.
We turn our hearts and our spirits to the people of Lac-Mégantic, population 5900,
who carry on in a place “where you either know someone who died or know someone who is grieving a death, where you wake up each day to the sound of heavy construction equipment, where your livelihood is at risk and where visitors come only to ask about the disaster.”
where social workers have so far met with 423 residents, from orphaned children to mourning grandparents,
where 800 jobs have been lost,
whose once serene waterfront is now inaccessible behind security barriers and rubble.

We gather today because the troubling perspective of imagination
brings what has struck far away
close to home.
We turn our thoughts and our voices to those who will make decisions about our town’s future.
We ask that they will take the long view,
That they will recall Lac-Mégantic—the town and the people—and remember that there have been 18 other derailments of tank cars carrying crude since last July,
That they will, with insight into human frailty, be aware that despite our good intentions, despite our commitment to safety standards, there are forces too toxic to be contained, standards too inadequate to defend against disaster.
That they will keep their minds and their hearts open to the future of Benicia, the town and the people, and the towns and the people uprail and downwind, the marshlands, the farmlands, the businesses, and the waterfront.

All these things we pray and do in the name of the Great Spirit of Life, Who blesses us with earth, air, and water, who graces us with creativity and community,  and strengthens us with compassion and imagination.

Amen.  So be it.

 Mary Susan Gast

NPR: First Responders Unprepared For Another Train Disaster

Repost from National Public Radio
[Editor: I remember with horror the breaking news last July of the catastrophic derailment and explosion in Lac-Mégantic.  Here in Benicia, we were preparing for a public forum to help residents understand the environmental impacts associated with our Valero Refinery’s bid to begin shipping crude oil by rail.  Lac-Mégantic was a shock, and a wake-up call.  Ever since that day, our concerns have expanded – crude by rail brings environmental disaster, and piles on catastrophic risk for everyone along the rails from the Midwestern provinces and states to the refinery.  – RS]

First Responders Unprepared For Another Train Disaster

By David Schaper, July 6, 2014

One year after an oil train derailed and exploded in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, some firemen and first responders say they still don’t have the training or manpower to handle a similar disaster.

Transcript

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

Ever since that Canadian train derailment, first responders all across North America wonder, what if it happens here? And as NPR’s David Schaper reports from this side of the border, many say they don’t have the training, the equipment or the manpower necessary to respond to an oil train disaster in their cities and towns.

DAVID SCHAPER, BYLINE: The images of that fiery blast that incinerated much of Lac-Mégantic’s downtown last summer still haunt many first responders.

GREGG CLEVELAND: It’s one of those things that certainly keeps me up at night.

SCHAPER: La Crosse, Wisconsin, fire chief Gregg Cleveland is watching one of the dozens of freight trains that rumble through the heart of the city of about 52,000 people every day. Many of the trains are hauling crude oil, some stretching more than a mile long, tank car after tank car full of volatile Bakken crude.

CLEVELAND: I think anytime that you have the railroad with the amount of hazardous materials in Bakken crude oil, the question is not if, but when.

SCHAPER: La Crosse is a long and narrow city nestled between the Mississippi River to the west and towering sandstone bluffs to the east, which presents unique challenges. An oil train could derail in the river or in a large environmentally sensitive marshland or in bluff-side neighborhoods that would be cut off from the only escape route over the tracks. Gregg Cleveland says, his professional firefighting force has a hazmat response team, but…

CLEVELAND: We really need more people trained in response to railroad incidents. We have virtually no foam, and the equipment that we have cannot apply the large volumes of foam that we would need in a railroad emergency.

SCHAPER: Furthermore, La Crosse has the only hazmat response team in west central Wisconsin. So along hundreds of miles of railroad track, the fire chief says, it could be up to small-town volunteer departments to initially try to contain an oil train spill and fire.

CLEVELAND: They’re not going to have the resources to do that. I think that’s a pretty safe assumption.

SENATOR HEIDI HEITKAMP: If we are going to do this right, we need to have a nationwide evaluation of the readiness.

SCHAPER: That’s Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota. Her state is producing most of the oil that is shipped by rail, and the amount has increased more than 6,000 percent over the last five years. She’s sponsoring a bill that would identify best practices for first responder training and equipment.

HEITKAMP: And then we need to figure out how do we get the resources to the local firefighters, how we get the training to the local firefighters and how do we institutionalize this because crude oil is not going to go off the trains anytime in the future.

SCHAPER: Heitkamp is also pushing for extra funding for first responder training, which the railroad industry is also stepping up to provide.

HEITKAMP: And it’s our goal with the training that those first responders have as realistic an experience as possible.

SCHAPER: Lisa Stabler is president of the Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo, Colorado, which is part of the American Association of Railroads. Under an agreement with the federal Department of Transportation, the center is providing enhanced crude by rail disaster training for firefighters from around the country, free of charge. Stabler says the program will include hands-on training with real derailed tank cars going up in flames.

LISA STABLER: And that allows them to learn and, if necessary, to make mistakes in a very safe environment so that they don’t mistake make mistakes when they’re out trying to take care of an incident with the public.

SCHAPER: Back in La Crosse, Wisconsin, fire chief Greg Cleveland applauds the increased training efforts. But he wonders why this didn’t happen sooner, given that dozens of trains carrying explosive crude already roll through his city every week.

CLEVELAND: Quite honestly, we’re playing catch up very quickly here.

SCHAPER: And Cleveland notes that costly training and equipment needs will be with his community, just like the oil trains, for quite some time to come.

David Schaper, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Montreal Gazette: Lac-Mégantic, One Year Later

Repost from The Montreal Gazette
[Editor: The Montreal Gazette offers a special section to mark the anniversary of the catastrophic crude by rail explosion in Canada, including a variety of intensely probing and sobering stories.  The LEAST we can do is respectfully remember – for MORE, we must take action in our own communities.  – RS]

Lac Megantic

Names etched in granite and in their hearts

Visitors read a monument to Lac-Mégantic’s 47 train disaster victims outside the Ste-Agnès church in the town, Sunday, July , 2014, after a mass to mark the first anniversary of the tragedy.  The mass was done as part of weekend activities to commemorate the accident.

The 12-foot slab of granite was ordered from a quarry in Asia, shortly after last summer’s disaster, and only after the families of the 47 dead in the tragedy had agreed: a monument should be erected.

Multimedia

Lac-Mégantic future plansINTERACTIVE: Lac-Mégantic before and after

See the proposed plans for Lac-Mégantic’s devastated former downtown and new commercial district…

LAC-MEGANTIC.: JULY 12, 2013-- A section of the train tracks near Lacourciere Street in Lac-MÈgantic, 216 kms east of Montreal, is pictured on Friday, July 12, 2013. There is speculation regarding the condition of the tracks the ill-fated train route ran along before the Saturday, July 6 train derailment disaster. (Justin Tang / THE GAZETTE) ORG XMIT: 47298WATCH: Our reporters’ vivid memories

Watch videos of a few of our reporters and photographers recounting some of the vivid memories they …

Lac-MéganticGALLERY: Lac-Mégantic one year later

Much has changed in Lac-Mégantic since last year’s tragedy, yet much has stayed the same. Here …