Runaway Train Blast: Town Mourns Victims

The identities of up to 50 people killed when a runaway train carrying crude oil exploded in Quebec have started to emerge as police admitted the missing were presumed dead.

Twenty bodies have been recovered following the blast in Lac-Megantic, according to officials, which has been blamed on the train's engineer failing to set the train's brakes properly.

Quebec police inspector Michel Forget said he told a meeting of families of the dead and missing "of the potential loss of their loved ones".

"You have to understand that it's a very emotional moment," he said.

Many of the victims had been at the Musi-Cafe, a popular late night bar and live music venue on the town's rue Frontenac.

The disaster scene with the remains of the Musi-Cafe in the foreground

A 40th birthday party for Josee Lafontaine had been taking place attended by her friends and family, with live music played by Guy Bolduc and Yvan Ricard.

But just after 1am the celebrations came to a sudden halt when the train derailed and exploded in flames just metres from the venue.

One of the guests at the party was Gaetan Lafontaine who had stepped outside moments before the blast occurred.

He immediately rushed into the inferno to look for his wife, Joanie Turmel, but neither of them survived. The couple left behind two children.

The crude oil freight train was out of control when it crashed

Mr Lafontaine's brother, Pascal, and his sister-in-law, Karine Lafontaine, who also had two children, were in the cafe at the time of the first explosion and have not been seen since.

Raymond Lafontaine lost a son, two-daughters-in-law and an employee.

"I cannot tell you what my heart is feeling," he told the National Post.

"The more you scratch, the more it hurts. As long as I am active and keep moving, I will be able to talk. But the day I stop, I am going to cry all the tears in my body."

Parts of the town were completely destroyed by the wall of fire

Mr Ricard had briefly left the venue to smoke a cigarette during an interval in the music, a move which saved his life.

But his colleague, who had gone to the bar for a drink just before the blast, was unable to escape. Mr Bolduc was married with two children.

"The last words he said to me were, 'Yvan, I really like playing with you. We have so much fun together,'" Mr Ricard told TVA.

Local resident Geneviève Breton had finished work at a local pharmacy and had one to the Musi-Cafe to meet her boyfriend.

Ms Breton was training to be a teacher and was well known in the town after her appearance in a Quebec singing competition.

Although her boyfriend escaped the inferno, Ms Breton died in the blast.

"Everybody loved her," her mother Ginette Cameron told the National Post. "She sang like an angel."

Just across the road from the Musi-Cafe lived Jimmy Sirois with his partner, Marie-Semie Alliance, and their 18-month old daughter, Milliana.

The accident was Canada's worst railway tragedy in 150 years

The couple were killed when the blast flattened their apartment, but Milliana had a miraculous escape as she had been staying with Mr Sirois' parents that evening.

Three of the cafe's employees were also killed in the blast, including Andrée-Anne Sévigny and Jo-Annie Lapointe. Stephane Lapierre, who lived in an apartment above the cafe, also died.

Lucie Vadnais was unable to escape the explosion as it ripped through the bar. She ran a daycare centre according to Josée Lemieux, a neighbour who often left her son there during the day and who described her as an "angel".

Henriette Latulippe, who worked in a beauty parlour on rue Frontenac,  was believed to have been asleep at home a hundred metres from the accident when she was caught in the blast.

The disaster forced 2,000 of the town's 6,000 residents from their homes and was Canada's worst railway tragedy in 150 years.

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