1,200 Lac-MÃ©gantic evacuees allowed to return home

A majority of the 2,000 people forced out of their Lac-Mégantic, Que., homes following the massive rail tank-car explosions Saturday morning are being allowed to return home today.

The city's mayor made the announcement this morning, urging residents to follow precautions regarding the drinking water supply and air quality.

The 1,200 residents live in the Fatima and some parts of the Cousineau sectors of town. Another 800 people remain prohibited from returning home because of work that is continuing in the centre of town, the area hardest hit by the explosions.

"The fire is under control," said Lac-Mégantic Fire Chief Denis Lauzon. "We are monitoring the area to make sure everything is safe …. As of now, we have a small area that we cannot open for safety [reasons]."

He said that the machinery being used to clean up the area could spark fires in the sewer system, where oil leaked from the damaged tankers. As a result, precautions are still being taken.

Jean-Thomas Fortin, of with Quebec's civil security department, said provincial police went door to door overnight and left information on those precautions for those who can return home.

Officials confirmed again that there is no problem with the town's water and the boil water advisory that has been in place since Sunday is precautionary. Testing will be done today at the town's now offline water treatment plant to see if it can be restored. The town is now relying on reservoirs for its drinking water.

Civil security officials said that air quality in the area has been tested and is safe, but an odor may remain. They advised those returning to open windows and ventilate their homes. They also told residents it is safe to clean up any remaining oil or smoke damage with soap and water.

"The houses with the worst problems have already been identified and will be cleaned professionally," Fortin said.

The partial lift of the evacuation order comes a day after Quebec provincial police announced the death toll had risen to 13 in the rail derailment and explosion that levelled the town's core early Saturday morning.

Head of rail company expected

Residents of Lac-Mégantic are expecting a visit from the head of the U.S. rail company at the centre of the deadly tanker-train derailment.

It is unclear when Edward Burkhardt will arrive, but his absence in the community since the explosion hasn't gone unnoticed, and he is certain to face tough questions and a fair degree of anger when he does visit.

"I know there is a lot of anger" in the small community where at least 13 people and 50 are still missing, Burkhardt told CBC News, in French.

He noted he has received "a lot of hate messages."

He added: "I hope I'm not going to get shot."

By Monday, eight more bodies had been found in the small community about 250 kilometres east of Montreal, bringing the official body count to 13 people after the train carrying crude oil set off a series of explosions and flattened the town's busy downtown.

Police said some 50 people are missing — a figure that includes the 13 unidentified bodies that have been recovered since the train derailed at about 1 a.m. ET Saturday.

Police are asking family members to provide toothbrushes, combs, or other items that might provide DNA from their missing relatives to help investigators identify the bodies. About 2,000 of the town's 6,000 residents were forced to leave their homes, but 1,500 of those evacuees may be able to return home as soon as today.

The rail tankers involved are known as DOT-111 and have a history of puncturing during accidents, the lead Transportation Safety Board investigator said in a telephone interview.

Flaws in the DOT-111 have been noted as far back as a 1991 safety study. Among other things, its steel shell is too thin to resist puncturing in accidents, which almost guarantees the car will tear open in an accident, potentially spilling cargo that could catch fire, explode or contaminate the environment.

Burkhardt was quoted in Montreal's La Presse newspaper as saying a different type of tank car wouldn't have made a difference in the tragedy.

Fought fire earlier

"I can't imagine a tank car that's solid enough to withstand what happened here," he said.

But as questions surface about the integrity of the tanker cars in an accident, the rail company and the fire department in the nearby town of Nantes appear to be pointing the finger at each other as investigators search for causes in the tragedy.

The fire chief in Nantes has offered an assessment different from the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway about who might have been to blame in the hours leading up to the tragedy.

Patrick Lambert said his crew had been trained by MMA to handle fires on its line — and they intervened to fight four fires on MMA trains in the past eight years.

He said his firefighters had shut off the engine to battle a blaze on the train earlier Friday night, as the MMA operating procedure urged them to do. After extinguishing the fire, he said his crew received the company's blessing to leave the scene.

The company, however, said the fire crew should have alerted the engineer who by that point had gone home to sleep for the night.

With the fire crew gone, and the engineer in bed, the train began rolling downhill on a fateful, destructive journey.

Authorities have said they're investigating such procedural details as well as the possibility of other factors having been at play, as part of their criminal probe.

Transportation Minister Denis Lebel, who arrived in the town Monday afternoon, says it's too early to speculate about what or who may be to blame, given that the TSB hasn't finished its investigation, nor have Quebec police.

But he chided the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway for how it has handled the catastrophe, saying he has "asked them to have a better communication system with the community and with the government."

Strong words

Burkhardt has been quoted in news reports as saying he's received many hateful messages and that he hopes he doesn't get shot at when he visits Lac-Mégantic, because he doesn't plan to wear a bullet-proof vest for his visit.

But even before he arrives, some residents have strong words for Burkhardt.

Richard Poirier, who was forced out of his home in Notre-Dame-de-Fatima, says he can't accept that the company has been so absent.

"I don't understand," he said. "I don't think it's right. They're not present at all."

Others, such as Raymond Lafontaine — whose son, two daughters-in-law and employee disappeared in the blast — urged the railway president to take a second look at his operations to ensure they meet safety regulations.

Lafontaine said he doesn't want dangerous material rolling through his town anymore. "It's an atomic bomb, it's dangerous," he said.

Town half-gone

He fears unregulated trains will kill more people's children.

"Today, it's me," he said. "It's our town that is half-gone."

Local people have been quick to single out the company with complaints about its lack of visibility, its safety standards, and even the fact that a press release issued in French appeared sloppily translated and loaded with errors.

The manager of the Musi-Cafe bar, who lost friends and colleagues in the explosions, said Monday that her own anger is directed at the company.

"Enormously," said Sophie L'Heureux, who added that security procedures are clearly inadequate.

She believes the railway has been laying low since the incident because it knows it did something wrong.

Recovery efforts continue in Lac-Mégantic, Que., after a train derailed igniting tanker cars carrying crude oil early Saturday. Most evacuees may be able to return home as soon as today. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press) With files from Associated Press

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