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Article

8 Jul 2013

Author:
Isabeau Doucet, Guardian (UK)

Death toll in Canadian oil train disaster rises to 13

About 40 people remain missing police say after being able to approach near to where the explosion happened...Police are now considering...Lac-Mégantic, in Quebec...a crime scene after a 72-car driverless freight train full of crude oil crashed into and pulverised the historic town centre...Air brakes that would have prevented the disaster failed because they were powered by an engine that was shut down by firefighters as they dealt with a fire shortly before the calamity occurred, the head of the railway that operated the train [Montreal, Maine & Atlantic (part of Rail World)] said on Monday...Quebec's environment minister, Yves-François Blanchet,...[said] that he estimated 100,000 litres of oil spilled into the river...The rail tankers involved...have a history of puncturing during accidents, the lead Transportation Safety Board investigator [said]...The train['s]...heavy crude oil...had been extracted from the Bekkan shale oil fields in North Dakota and was headed to eastern refineries in New Brunswick, according to...MMA