'47 victims … yet no one's guilty:' Firsthand stories from Lac-Mégantic survivors and families of victims

Just before 1 a.m. on July 6, 2013, the last remaining air hissed out of the brakes on a 9,100-tonne freight train parked uphill from the town of Lac-Mégantic, Que. As those brakes gave way, the train rolled down more than 10 kilometres of track, gathering momentum as it descended toward the town. Seconds after derailing, close to six million litres of crude oil ignited, and the resulting explosions incinerated downtown Mégantic, claiming 47 lives. 

This was no accident. 

Lac-Mégantic - This is Not an Accident, a four-part series, investigates one of the worst rail disasters in Canadian history, a foreseeable catastrophe caused by corporate and political negligence. The series tells the stories of the survivors and family members, who share intimate memories of lost loved ones and the string of injustices they've faced since that life-changing summer night. 

Ten years later, the companies and government agencies accused of negligence and poor safety protocols still have not fully answered for this catastrophe. Only the train's engineer, Thomas Harding, was sentenced to six months of house arrest. 

Four survivors share their stories about the night they'll never forget and the aftermath. Their interviews have been edited for length and clarity.  

Isabelle Boulanger

Isabelle Boulanger and her family awoke to the news that the town was on fire. Her son, 19-year-old Frédéric, was known to be at a local bar before going to bed. His body was the first to be recovered.

During the day, my cell rang. I saw that it was Frédéric, so I called him back around 3:30, 4 p.m. He was in town, going out with buddies.… We finished our conversation, and the last thing he told me was "I love you, Mom."

That was it — that was the last time we spoke. Honestly, it's my most cherished memory. I couldn't have hoped for more.

The investigators started by counting the missing. For each missing person, they asked about any distinctive traits — features that could help identify them quicker. I gave blood for DNA.… We told them about his tattoo and his scar.

Frédéric's body was the first to be recovered from the spot where it happened.… He was the first to have a funeral and the only one whose body was whole. It's a small comfort, but yeah.

Only two victims of the tragedy had caskets. Frédéric was one of them. For us, since he died by fire, there was no way we'd cremate him. I wasn't going to burn him twice.

Pascal Charest

On the evening of July 5, Pascal Charest tucked his young daughters, Alyssa and Bianka, into bed before leaving the apartment where they lived with their mother, Talitha Coumi Bégnoche. (The couple was separated at the time.) While he was talking to a friend, Charest witnessed the train derail and explode right at his daughters' home. Ten years after the explosions, five victims are still unaccounted for, including one of Charest's daughters.  

I woke Talitha up and told her I was going to see André at the taxi stand. And then …

At some point, I hear the train go by, and the only thing I see is a pole bending — and a red glow.

So that's when I started running toward the girls and their mother.… I figured something wasn't right, that the train was derailing. [Then] I saw the tankers piling up right where they lived.

Bianka was nine years old, and Alyssa had just turned four. I had a really hard time believing this had happened — that my wife and kids were gone.… I made several trips to the hospital that night. I kept hoping that they'd had time to escape, which was basically impossible.

There was nothing I could do except be crushed.

One's missing — Bianka. They found Talitha through bone fragments, if I'm not mistaken. They found one of Alyssa's teeth.

It was a shock for me to see their birth certificates with "deceased" stamped in red. That makes it real.… I couldn't bear to look at their pictures on the fridge.

In my youth, I used to read the Bible. And the passages that say people who die by suicide don't go to the right place and that tender-age children … technically go to the right place — that's what helped me. I held on to that, telling myself that if I killed myself, I'd never see them again.

If anything, that's what kept me going.

Jean Clusiault

Clausiault's 24-year-old daughter, Kathy, died in the tragedy. He followed the trial of the three rail employees who were charged with criminal negligence and acquitted, and maintains that the real culprits of the disaster went unpunished. 

The night of the disaster, [my daughter] Kim calls me. She says, "Dad, don't panic. All of downtown is on fire, and we're looking for Kathy." As soon as she said that, I knew it was game over.

My brother came to get me outside of Mégantic. Going toward the high school, he said, "We still have to have hope."… I said, "Don't you think if Kathy got away, the first thing she'd do is to call everyone to say she's OK?"

She wasn't OK.

People thought she was at the Musi-Café, but she was across the street. But the whole block blew up at once. One breath of air, five seconds, and it all blew up. She didn't suffer. 

When I arrived at the high school and saw our priest, Steve Lemay, I told him, "I should've lost the two [daughters]. Luckily, I only lost one." 

I said, "Can I tell you something, Steve? Had I lost both my daughters, you'd be burying three bodies."

You have 47 victims and a few suicides that followed — because there were more than one — yet no one's guilty. No one's guilty, because they simply hid the real culprits. 

Marie-Claude Boulet

After the events of 2013, more unrest followed. Marie-Claude Boulet lived in the Fatima neighbourhood across the river from downtown, where she was safe from the disaster. When the town decided to raze the downtown core and move some of the stores to Fatima, residents, including Boulet, were forced out of their homes to make way for the redevelopment.

I worked at the hospital then. When a tragedy like this strikes, it's my duty to help. Everyone was there, including our bosses. We'd set up. We were ready for triage, ready for patients.

Nobody came. That was awful.

[Later] strangers started showing up. They came in luxury cars, knocking on our doors, wanting to buy our homes: "We want a nice new neighbourhood where everything looks the same." 

I told them, "Sure, no problem. If that's what it takes, I'll do it. I'm willing to renovate. You want stores on the ground floor and an apartment above? Sure. I've got the perfect house. I'll renovate it and stay."

My father bought the house 35 years ago. It's where my sister, Julie, and I grew up. 

The men in luxury cars came back. "You didn't want to sell us your house," [they said]. They raised their voices: "If you don't sell, you'll be evicted. It'll get ugly."

In February, we left for vacation. A bailiff came to our house with an eviction notice that I only had five days to challenge. They knew I was away.… So a surprise was waiting for me when I returned. There was a notice on my door saying I was evicted because I hadn't challenged it.

I had three weeks to leave.

What the notice of eviction said was that I had lost my house because I hadn't paid my taxes, which was a lie.

We called city hall for information. They said, "Mrs. Boulet, we haven't adopted a legal framework for a disaster yet. The only legal option we have is the expropriation act, so we must evict you." I said, "But I paid my taxes." [They] said, "That's not the point. We needed an article to warrant an eviction and, since there isn't one, we used the one we have."

[The town] wanted big-box stores and foreign investment in Lac-Mégantic. So step aside and make way for the others. Your property must be made available for important investors.

But that never happened. Today, absolutely nothing's been done with my land. It's a vacant lot. They simply tore down my house and left. It's all gone.