'It looks like the apocalypse': MMA workers didn't fathom it was their train burning, Lac-Mgantic trial hears

As towering flames lit the night sky in theearlymorning of July 6, 2013, employees of the now-defunct Montreal, Maine and Atlantic (MMA) railway spoketo each other with growing apprehension, trying to figure out the cause of the blazing inferno which was ravaging downtown Lac-Mgantic.

"The town of Lac-Mgantic is on fire, from the church to the Metro to the river," MMA locomotive engineer Tom Harding is heard saying on audio recordings played to Superior Court Justice Gatan Dumas and the jury in a Sherbrooke courtroom Wednesday.

"The flames are 200 feet high," Harding tells rail traffic controller Richard Labrie.

• Firefighter watched train barrel past him
• Lac-Mgantictrial hears 9handbrakesshould have been used to secure tanker train

Labrie, 59, and Harding, 56, along with former MMA operations manager Jean Dematre, 53, are on trial for criminal negligence causing 47 deaths in connection with that tragedy.

"It's not us," Labrie says in an earlier conversation to Dematre. "We have a train in Nantes and in Vachon."

"It might be the gas line that blew up," he surmises.

'The flames are 200 feet high,' says Tom Harding

7 years ago

Duration 0:48

Tom Harding calls MMA railway traffic controller Richard Labrie to describe the fire at Lac-Mgantic. The locomotive engineer doesn't yet know it's his runaway train.

Realization slowly dawns

After about an hour after the initial call, Labrie suggests to Dematre the possibility that the MMA fuel train might be to blame.

"Stop that," replies Dematre, using a French cuss word.

"What I want to know is if it's our train that ran down," says Labrie. "It's stressing the hell out of me."

Dematre then asks if Harding secured his train.

"Yes," says Labrie.

"I f--king hope it's someone else's fault, not ours," says Dematre.

'There is no more downtown'

Around 2:30 a.m. ET, a taxi dispatcher from Lac-Mgantic callsLabrie, informing him it'sMMA's 74-car fuel train, parked 12 kilometres away at Nantes, which has rolled into downtown Lac-Mgantic, derailed and burst into a raging blaze.

"It's burning like hell, man," says the dispatcher. "There is no more downtown, Richard."

"Calisse," swears Labrie, breathing heavily. "Oh no."

Warning: Explicit language in the audio that follows:

'There's no more downtown,' taxi dispatcher says

7 years ago

Duration 0:59

Lac-Mgantic taxi dispatcher calls rail traffic controller Richard Labrie and confirms MMA's 74-car fuel train has rolled into downtown Lac-Mgantic and exploded.

"Dozens and dozens of people are going to die," says the taxi dispatcher.

Labrie is then heard calling Dematre.

"Put on your pants," he tells him. "The train ran down."

"You're kidding me?" says Dematre.

"The train ran down. We're in deep shit, tabarnak," says Dematre. "[Harding] didn't secure it properly."

Harding finds out it's his train

Sometime after 2:30 a.m., Harding calls Labrie from a payphone to get an update.

Labrie tells him it was the fuel train he'd left in Nantes which is burning in Lac-Mgantic.

"No. no. F--k, Tabarnak de tabarnak. It was secure when I left," Harding says. "[Richard], it was secure."

Labrie asks Harding how many handbrakes he applied to the rail cars.

Seven, Harding tells him.

Warning: explicit language in the audio that follows:

MMA locomotive engineer gets the news

7 years ago

Duration 0:50

Tom Harding learns from rail traffic controller Richard Labrie that the train that derailed and exploded in downtown Lac-Mgantic is the one he left on the track at Nantes.

Several conversations later, Harding calls Labrie back from the gas station where he's been waiting, asking what he should do and where he should go.

Labrie tells him he's not sure.

"I don't feel too good right now," Harding tells Labrie.

"I understand," replies Labrie. "Me neither, I don't feel good."

"I can't believe the damage in downtown Mgantic," continues Harding.

"I can't imagine, maybe because I don't want to imagine. I guess it must be f--king hell" says Labrie.

"It is," Harding replies.

Number of handbrakes called into question

In one of the last audio recordings heard by the jury, MMA's former assistant director, Michael Horan,asks Labrie what happened.

Labrie tells him about the initial fire on the locomotive left idling in Nantes the night before, explaining that firefighters had put it out and turned off the engine.

Horan tells Labrie he should have told them to leave thelocomotive running.

Labrie is then asked how many handbrakes Harding left on the train. Labrie counts out the handbrakes, for a total of seven.

"Tabarnak, that's not enough," Horanresponds.

Worstthing imaginable

The rail traffic controller who took over Labrie's duties later that day told the court that he had no idea what had happened when he got to the train station at Farnham, 65 kilometres southeast of Montreal.

That moment my life changed forever.Steve Jacques, rail traffic controller

Steve Jacques, the 25th witness to testify in the trial, described the first few minutes of his workday.

"[Labrie is] someone who's very orderly,'' Jacques said. "But I arrived and there were papers everywhere."

Jacques said he tried to make a joke, but Labrie was busy on the phone, so he started working.

Jacques said when he asked Labrie what was going on, Labrie responded by asking him what was the worst thing he could imagine happening.

He responded: "We go to Montreal, and the drawbridge goes up, and a fuel train derails into the seaway."

"I still hadn't seen [Labrie's] face," Jacquesadded. "He was green. He said, 'Mgantic is on fire.'"

• 'This unit is definitely not 100%': recordings of worried engineer

Jacques asked Labrie if he meant the railyard in Mgantic, he testified.

"No," Labrie told him. "The town is on fire."

"I was in shock," Jacques told the court.

"I went on [the] internet and saw the video that everyone else saw, and at that moment my life changed forever."

Jacques is expected to continue his testimony Thursday.