In the days following the tragedy, as all of Quebec tries to understand what may have happened, the chronology of events remains confused and full of gaps. Ten years later, multiple trials and reports, including that of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB), allow for an updated picture of the sequence of events that led to the tragedy on the night of July 6th, 2013.
1:55 p.m Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway (MMA) freight train departs Farnham east bound for Nantes. During the journey, engineer Thomas Harding reported that the lead locomotive was experiencing mechanical problems. The train, consisting of 72 tank cars with 7.7 million liters of crude oil and 5 locomotives, was idling.
10:50 p.m Arrival of the train in Nantes, a neighboring village of Lac-Mégantic. Mr. Harding secures the train on the main track with the air brakes. He then applied a total of seven handbrakes when the train stopped on an incline. He turned off the engines of four locomotives.
11:30 p.m A taxi picks up the mechanic and takes him to the hotel. The train driver notices smoke and drops of oil escaping from the still moving locomotive.
Lac Mégantic, ten years later
11:40 p.m A fire is reported on board the train in Nantes and firefighters go to the scene of the accident. During their intervention, they shut down the engine of the fifth and last locomotive still running.
12:13 a.m The fire is under control.
12:44 a.m The firefighters and the MMA representatives who have meanwhile arrived on site withdraw. As the locomotive engines were shut down, the air brakes gradually lost their effectiveness.
In its report, TSB notes that when the engine is shut off, “the systems are expected to bleed air” but the time it takes for the brakes to fully bleed air “varies significantly.”
00:56 The train leaves without a driver on board. The 10,000-ton convoy is swept along by gravity and heads straight for downtown Lac-Mégantic.
1:14 a.m The ghost train has been running for 18 minutes, getting faster and faster until it soon reaches 100 kilometers per hour. Tank wagons derailed, collided and caused several explosions. The rest of the convoy derailed a little further and the locomotives separated to continue their journey 800 meters.
1:17 p.m First call 911 to report a fire. The alert is raised for a general evacuation. Firefighters from six neighboring communities are called to help. All hospital staff are also called to help, but few are injured.
1:29 p.m The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) informs Farnham platoon leader Richard Labrie that there have been explosions at Lac-Mégantic. Here it is asked whether the fire is in this location or in Nantes, since the train of the MMA should be in Nantes. The SQ asks Mr Labrie if he is sure the train is still in Nantes.
1:47 a.m Tom Harding telephones the train manager at Farnham, Mr Labrie, to ask what types of carriages are in the station (warehouse). “Everything is on fire, from the church to the subway [épicerie]”From the river to the railroad tracks,” Engineer Harding told colleague Richard Labrie over the phone. This confirms that no hazardous substances are immobilized.
During this conversation, when he asks if it was the MMA train that got off, Mr Harding replies “no”.
Several more conversations followed between employees of the railway company to determine the cause of the fire.
2:39 The head guard Jean-Noël Busque goes to Nantes and confirms to Mr. Labrie that the train is no longer there.
3:29 p.m It was Richard Labrie at Farnham, where the train departed, who told Thomas Harding that it was indeed his train that drifted. During the call, a recording of which was later released, we hear him denounce the shock. “Holy shit [Merde] “, we hear. Then he says his train was safe: “When I left, it was safe,” he repeats.
July 7 around 11 a.m The fire is extinguished more than 34 hours later. The cleaning process begins. It is estimated that 100,000 liters of crude oil polluted the Lac Mégantic and the Chaudière River, both by direct inflow and by infiltration.
July 19th Police say the official total of the dead is 47, several of whom have yet to be officially identified.