When Edward Burhardt Spoke, the Crisis Worsened: The Dangers of Crisis Miscommunication

Abstract

Lac-Mégantic is a town of approximately 6,000 people that sits on a lake by the same name in the eastern part of Quebec, Canada. Until July of 2013, it was best known as a tourist destination and a producer of forestry products. Just past midnight on July 6, 2013, an unattended train, composed of 72 cars carrying petroleum, began to roll downhill from Nantes to Lac-Mégantic: a distance of just over 6 miles (Bizarre, 2013). There had been a small fire on the train earlier in the evening that was extinguished by local firefighters. When the unattended train hit Lac-Mégantic at 1:15am, it derailed and ignited a fire that would devastate the town. A total of 63 cars derailed in the crash. Approximately 2,000 people (over one third of the town) were evacuated. In the end, 47 people were killed by the derailment and fire. Approximately 150 firefighters fought the blaze that consumed 30 buildings in the downtown. Most of the evacuated residents returned within three days, but over 200 remained outside of the town until the sixth day after the derailment. The investigation of the derailment turned media attention to the Maine, Montreal, and Atlantic Railway (MM&A) and its parent company, Rail World. As with any crisis, people want answers to the question “why?”