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Wednesday, July 6th, 2016

Call to Action: Three Years Since Lac-Megantic Disaster

from Portland Press Herald

Crude oil tankers from the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic railway are seen July 9, 2013, in the heart of downtown Lac-Megantic, Quebec, where the runaway train exploded, killing 47 on July 6 of that year. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel

Three years after a train derailment and explosion devastated the town of Lac-Megantic, Quebec, a group of Mainers will converge Saturday in Auburn to commemorate the victims and reiterate the dangers that the rail transportation of crude oil poses.

Organized by 350 Maine and the Maine Stop Oil Trains Team, the event will feature a march by demonstrators on the train tracks in downtown Auburn as well as a vigil in remembrance of the 47 people who died in the Lac-Megantic disaster. The demonstration is scheduled to begin at noon, with participants meeting at the Great Falls Plaza parking lot.

“After Lac-Megantic, I think we have begun to understand the dangers of oil transportation by train,” said Andy Burt, an organizer of the demonstration and vigil. “We think that it’s really important that the public has a right to know what the risks are to this transportation.”

In the early morning hours of July 6, 2013, chaos and devastation consumed Lac-Megantic when a 72-car freight train carrying about 2 million gallons of crude oil derailed and exploded in the center of the town, located near the Maine border.

Just hours after the 1:30 a.m. explosion, 30 firefighters from eight Franklin County towns arrived in Lac-Megantic – Farmington’s “sister city” – to help.

Three years after making the 93-mile trip with several other Farmington firefighters, Fire Chief Terry Bell said he still thinks about the tragedy. He said the state of the town when he and the others from Maine arrived was “unbelievable.”

Bell and other Franklin County firefighters stayed in Lac-Megantic until about 10 p.m., helping to pump water from nearby Lake Megantic to douse the train cars.

According to the Auburn event’s Facebook page, Saturday’s demonstration will end with a “call to action,” asking government officials to ban oil transportation by rail in Maine.

The train that derailed in Lac-Megantic was scheduled to cross Maine on its way to the Irving Oil refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick.

While there are reporting guidelines that companies transporting crude oil must follow in the state, to date there are no regulations that prohibit the transportation of oil by train, according to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

In 2014, Rangeley Fire Chief Tim Pellerin testified before Congress in support of increased hazardous-material training for fire departments after he saw firsthand the challengers emergency responders faced after the Lac-Megantic explosion.

No trains carrying oil have crossed through Maine in 2016 thus far.

Three years after devastation, Lac-Megantic is still working to rebuild. Though parts of its downtown have been rebuilt, part of it has been gated off since the explosion, according to the Montreal Gazette.