Woman dies, others fall ill as train quarantined in northern Ontario

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FOLEYET, Ont. - The confluence of a mysterious death on a cross-Canada train trip and reports of illnesses among several passengers triggered a full-scale health scare yesterday, leaving hundreds of passengers quarantined and a tiny northern Ontario hamlet transfixed as emergency teams descended on their community.

Although Ontario's top medical official eventually defused the situation by announcing there was no evidence the deceased 60-year-old woman or the ill passengers were carrying an infectious disease, the tense drama that unfolded kept scores of townsfolk on tenterhooks for hours.

The Via Rail train, with 264 passengers aboard for a three-day trip from Vancouver to Toronto, was quarantined and halted on the tracks at about 8:30 a.m. amid reports that several people had become sick with flu-like symptoms.

One person was airlifted to hospital.

The train was finally cleared to resume its journey just before 7 p.m. last night from the train station in Timmins, Ont., about 100 kilometres northeast of the hamlet of Foleyet.

A Via spokeswoman said the train was expected to arrive in Toronto around 8 a.m. today.

Earlier in the day, residents of Foleyet, population 380, expressed awe and unease as emergency officials, ambulances, helicopters and a haz-mat team clad in biohazard suits swarmed their community and prepared for the worst.

Deborah DesRochers, chairwoman of the town, said the sight of so many emergency and police personnel was a wake-up call to residents that the threat of infectious disease can strike anywhere.

"When we watch the news here, everything is happening down south, so when something like this does happen on your doorstep, it makes you stop and think," she said.

"It does happen everywhere, and people have to be ready and aware of how to deal with that situation if it gets there. So we got a little lesson today and I think quite a few people got lessons today."

Not far from the quarantined zone is the Northern Lights Restaurant, which was jammed with residents like 53-year-old Leo DesRochers, who stopped by to get a closer look at the scene.

"It's creating quite a bit of excitement, it's really rolling in here," he said of the mood in the bustling restaurant at lunch hour.

"There's lots of people standing around, lots of police, and they're handling it with white gloves. They're being pretty careful about it."

By 4 p.m., health officials held a news conference at the Ontario legislature to finally declare the emergency over with news of test results indicating there was no infectious disease outbreak on the train.

"While the cause of death continues to be under investigation, it has been determined that the deceased did most likely not have an infectious disease," said Dr. David Williams, Ontario's acting chief medical officer of health.