Blackened buildings and bodies burned into charred debris are all that remain at the heart of the small Quebec town where an oil-laden runaway train derailed and exploded a day ago.
"All we'll find will be their teeth," lamented one firefighter mobilised to battle the inferno that erupted, of the scores of people still reportedly missing.
Four bodies were found this morning, bringing the official death toll from the disaster to five.
At a press conference announcing the discovery of two of the bodies, police said even the gender of the victims was unidentifiable from the charred remains.
Firefighters are still working to douse blazes in at least two of the train cars that crashed, delaying search operations in downtown Lac-Megantic, where the spectacular crash saw flames shoot into the sky around 1:20 am (1050 IST) yesterday.
Witnesses reported up to six explosions after the train derailed, and some 2,000 people were evacuated from their homes.
The train -- 72 tanker cars loaded with crude oil pulled and pushed by five locomotives -- left Montreal, 250 kilometres to the west, and was heading to the port of St. John on Canada's Atlantic coast.
Instead, its final destination was this picturesque resort town of 6,000 residents in a corner of the Appalachia mountains near the border with the US state of Maine.
In this region of thick forests, the sky is normally so clear that US astronomers use the local observatory to peer into the sky.
The town's history has been intimately linked to the rail line since settlers streamed out of train cars in the 19th century as they settled the region.
The town's motto is "from the railway to the Milky Way," said Remi Tremblay, the top editor of L'Echo de Frontenac, the local newspaper.
"I could show you. This motto was on the flags that decorate the main road... But they must have melted," he said.
Tremblay was one of the thousands forced to leave his home, which was near the two-square kilometre area consumed by flames.
In the past years rail traffic has increased significantly. "There were more freight trains -- it was cause for concern," he said.
Dressed in heavy yellow protective gear, the town fire department chief, Denis Lauzon, said that his department wanted information on what was being moved by rail through his town. "But we had yet to present a formal request," Lauzon said.
