two years ago in the canadian town of lac-megantic a train derailed, triggering a fireball levelling much of the center of the town. how safe are the hundreds of thousands of residents who live near the cars and railways. over the past five years, the united states and canada have reported 11 fires, six explosions, nine evacuations and 47 deaths in lac-megantic. all related to the spike in oil-train transport seen in both countries. the tally of all u.s. oil train incident rose from one in 2009 to 144 in 2014. that crude awakening has agencies scrambling to contain the danger. mary snow has the report. >> reporter: this is a nightmare scrarn with cities asking what if. this latest derailment was in north dakota. in february a train erupted into a fireball in west virginia and a month later in illinois. no one was hurt it's the accidents prompting environmentalist to sound the alarm. his wake up call came in 2014, when tankers derailed. though one was hurt no oil spilt. >> it made me realise what a near miss that was. >> a near miss because of the densely populated neighbourhoods with