Rescue workers dig through the rubble for victims of the train disaster in Lac-Megantic, Quebec on July 8, 2013.
Canadian police say they are examining criminal negligence as the cause of the recent deadly train disaster near Montreal.
Quebec police inspector Michel Forget said Tuesday that they are looking for Å“evidence that might allow the filing of criminal charges” into the derailment of the oil-carrying train.
The July 6 train disaster left 15 people dead and around 40 others missing. It also leveled 30 buildings in the city of Lac-Megantic.
About 2,000 of the 6,000 residents, who were forced to flee the explosions sparked by the derailment, were allowed to return to their homes on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway, Edward Burkhardt, accused firefighters in Nantes of releasing the train’s brakes after they had extinguished a small fire in one of the trainâ„¢s five locomotives.
Nantes firefighters Å“showed up and put out the fire with a fire extinguisher. To do that they also shut down the first locomotive’s engines. This is what led to the disaster,” said Burkhardt.
But, Nantes Fire Chief Patrick Lambert dismissed Burkhardtâ„¢s accusations, saying the 12 firefighters who responded to the initial fire had followed all of the proper procedures.
Investigators from Canadaâ„¢s Transportation Safety Board (TSB) said their inquiry will focus on the trainâ„¢s brakes, the rail companyâ„¢s policies for securing stopped trains as well as what caused the original locomotive fire in Nantes.
TSB lead investigator Donald Ross reported that the train began to roll moments after firefighters and a company official left the locomotive unattended on the tracks in Nantes, after the fire was extinguished.
CAH/KA
Republished with permission from: Press TV