Finger-pointing begins as the death roll rises
Police treating blast area as a crime scene
LAC- MÉGANTIC, Que — Police say they’re treating the Lac-Mégantic disaster area as a “crime scene” and they could lay charges in connection with a tragedy that has killed 15 people and left dozens missing.
Quebec provincial police Insp. Michel Forget revealed that police are not leaning toward terrorism as a hypothesis, but are more likely exploring the possibility of criminal negligence.
“There are pieces (of evidence) that might lead us to believe that they are artifacts from criminal acts,” he said.
“We are not at the stage of arrests right now.”
The result is the downtown core of Lac-Mégantic falls within a security perimeter and trespassers could be charged with obstructing justice if they venture into what police are calling “the red zone.”
Rail-company officials and residents who want to access the site, perhaps to retrieve personal belongings, will have to get a police escort.
Forget said no efforts would be spared in the search for bodies. “There are 200 of our people in the city of LacMégantic,” he said. “We are very hopeful we’ll find more bodies.”
The official death toll in the train disaster climbed as two more bodies were pulled Tuesday from the scorched area.
With about another 35 other people still missing, residents expect the grim news to continue.
On Tuesday, the Transportation Safety Board said it is performing its own investigation of the blast. The TSB said authorities were never alerted to the fact that a runaway train was on its way to levelling part of the small Quebec town.
Rail dispatchers had no chance to intervene during the fateful 18-minute journey because they didn’t know it was happening, TSB investigator Donald Ross told reporters.
“There were no signals nor track circuits, so the rail-traffic controller had no — and would have had no — indication that there had been a runaway train,” he said.
Such systems are in place on busier rail lines, including the one linking Montreal and Quebec City, but not on secondary lines, TSB manager Ed Belkaloul said.
The finger-pointing over the disaster has already begun, with untold financial stakes at play: There are already local rumours of potential lawsuits while various parties speculate about impending compensation.
The company that owns the train, Montreal, Maine & Atlantic, and fire officials in the nearby town of Nantes have blamed each other as investigators search for causes in the tragedy that has ravaged the community about 250 kilometres east of Montreal.
The fire chief in Nantes has offered an assessment different from the railway’s about who might have been to blame in the hours leading up to the tragedy.
Edward Burkhardt, the president and CEO of MMA’s parent company, Rail World, Inc., has suggested the fire crew didn’t do enough — and even suggested the decision to shut off the locomotive to put out a fire earlier in the night might have disabled the brakes.
The fire crew, however, says it was simply following procedures set out by the railway.
Burkhardt is set to visit LacMégantic this week and will likely face tough questions and anger from residents.
The higher death toll came a few hours after officials started allowing 1,200 displaced residents to go home. “We are very happy and want to thank the population for their co-operation in the reintegrated sectors,” said Quebec public security ministry spokesperson Christine Savard.
Since the disaster early Saturday, many had been staying with relatives or at a shelter set up in the local high school.
The homes of another 600 residents are either still cordoned off or were destroyed.
While some homes in the reopened areas remain without power, the ministry of public security said those were isolated cases, and power would be restored shortly. “There are plenty of health officials and police officers on-site,” spokesperson Jean-Thomas Fortin said. “There will be plenty of support” for people returning home.
Chief firefighter Denis Lauzon said that while the fire is under control, some hot spots remain that could flare up. “We’re working with metal machinery, and we could maybe start another fire, and that’s why we’re still there with firefighters in full dress.”
For returning residents, provincial police spokesperson Benoit Richard had more good news — only one home in the cordoned-off area had a reported break-in.
Mayor Colette Roy-Laroche told residents a precautionary boil-water advisory was still in place.
Roy-Laroche spoke optimistically of the town’s future. She encouraged visitors to come to the city, whose economy relies on tourism. “I say to the planet, that all our tourist attractions are working. ... Don’t abandon us.”
As searchers are given access to the centre of the crash — where the remains of the missing may lie — families have been asked to bring personal items that could contain the DNA of the person such as a toothbrush, razor or comb.