A Quebec town devastated when a runaway oil tanker train exploded killing at least five people braced for a rising death toll on Monday as fire crews tried to reach the hardest hit areas where about 40 people were believed to be missing.
All but one of the train’s 73 tanker cars were carrying oil when they somehow came loose early Saturday morning, sped downhill nearly 11 kilometres into the town of lac-Megantic, near the Maine border, and derailed, with at least five of the cars exploding.
Firefighters today were focusing their efforts on two oil-filled cars dousing them with water and foam in an attempt to keep them from overheating and exploding.