According to New York Consul General Tom Clark, the Canadian Pacific Railway is responsible for the wildfire that caused damage in Lytton, BC. .According to Blacklock’s Reporter, this statement goes against the findings of a federal investigation conducted in 2021..“In British Columbia, there was a town called Lytton, British Columbia, and a train went through and sparks came off the rails,” said Clark. .“The town was destroyed, burnt out. It was turned into oblivion. There was nothing left of Lytton. So that concern is very real.”.Clark spoke about this in an interview with WXXI-TV in Plattsburgh, New York, on July 14. .However, he did not say where he got this information from. .The official cause of the Lytton fire is still unknown and is being investigated by the RCMP and the British Columbia Superior Court..On Oct. 20, 2021, the federal Transportation Safety Board rejected the train theory..“The Board has not identified any link between railway operations and the fire,” said the report Rail Transportation Safety Investigation R21V0143..The Lytton fire was reported at 4:38 p.m. Pacific on June 30, 2021, amid “extreme hot and dry conditions combined with high-velocity winds,” wrote the Safety Board. .On June 29, the village experienced the hottest temperature ever recorded in Canada, reaching 47.7 C..Evidence showed that 18 minutes before the Lytton fire was reported, a 157-car Canadian Pacific coal train passed through the village at 40 kilometres an hour. .A Safety Board investigation included testing of soil samples, interviews with the train crew and review of satellite imagery, onboard video cameras, the locomotive “event recorder” and inspections of track and train parts..“No rail grinding activities or track work had taken place in the area that day or in the days before the first report of fire on June 30, 2021,” wrote the Board. .“The Board’s investigator inspected the train after it had been offloaded and was secured in Burnaby, BC looking for signs of hot bearings, burnt brake heads, built-up tread and other potential fire-creating causes. No anomalies were noted.”.“Interviews were conducted with railway employees engaged in operating trains in the area or in maintenance activities,” said the report. .“No anomalies were observed or reported.”.“There was no occurrence reported to the Safety Board by either Canadian National or Canadian Pacific, nor were they aware of any such occurrence when specifically asked by the Safety Board,” said the report. .The Board said that the fire and freight schedule happening at the same time was just a coincidence.
