Video: Canadian PM: train crash site 'looks like a war zone' "You know, it looks like a war zone here," he said. A large part of the downtown has been destroyed, it's just, it is really just terrible. Canadian opposition leader Thomas Mulcair said that "one of the top priorities of any government has to be public protection, as we all try to find out how such a thing could happen." Police said firefighters are staying 500 feet from the burning tankers, which are being doused with water and foam to keep them from overheating. The multiple blasts came over a span of several hours in the town of 6,000, which is about 155 miles (250 kilometres) east of Montreal and about 10 miles west of the border with the US state of Maine. The derailment caused at least five tanker cars to explode in the downtown district, a popular area packed with bars that often bustles on summer weekend nights. Residents who gathered outside a community shelter on Sunday hugged and wiped away tears as they braced themselves for bad news about missing loved ones. The cause of the accident was believed to be a runaway train, the railroads operator said.