Runaway freight train explodes, levels center of Canadian town

LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec: A driverless freight train carrying tankers of petroleum products derailed at high speed and exploded into a giant fireball in the middle of a small Canadian town early yesterday, destroying dozens of buildings and leaving an unknown number of people feared missing.
The disaster occurred shortly after 1 a.m. (0500 GMT) when the runaway train with 73 cars sped into Lac-Megantic, a picturesque lakeside town of about 6,000 people near the border with Maine, and came off the rails. Witnesses said the town center was crowded at the time.
Four of the pressurized tank cars caught fire and blew up in a fireball that mushroomed many hundreds of feet up into the air.
Although police said they could not yet get close enough to determine the number of victims from the still-burning fires, an aerial photograph showed widespread devastation in the town center. Police also said that some in the town were worried because they could not reach missing family or friends by phone.
An official from Montreal, Maine & Atlantic, the firm that operated the train, said the train had been parked some distance away from the town and no one on board when it derailed.
“We’re not sure what happened, but the engineer did everything by the book. He had parked the train and was waiting for his relief ... somehow, the train got released,” vice president of marketing Joseph R. McGonigle said.
“There appears to be extensive damage in buildings, but we haven’t got full report yet of injuries. But we understand that there likely are some,” he said.