Third fatal fire in five years in a small town

Photo agence QMI, Pascal Girard
Some 45 firefighters were mobilized to extinguish the blaze in Dunham.

Catherine Montambeault

Saturday, 14 October, 2017 06:52

UPDATE
Saturday, 14 October, 2017 06:52

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The small community of Dunham was devastated on Saturday after having lived a third fatal fire in five years, which has claimed the life of a young boy.

“It is a tragedy what happened here. It is tightly woven to Dunham, then the whole world is very, very sad, ” responded Peter Janecek, mayor of the city located in the Montérégie region.

In the night from Friday to Saturday, a violent fire broke out in a family residence from the street Cajuns. When firefighters arrived on the scene shortly after midnight, the kindling was already widespread.

“It was a fire very aggressive. When the fire swirls in on itself like that, is that it is at its maximum of intensity, ” explained the director of the fire Department of Dunham, Patrick Cournoyer.

A mother whose identity was not revealed Saturday, was able to get out of the house wearing her boy of two years old in her arms. But his eldest son, aged four years, would have been lost in the dense smoke.

The boy’s body was found in the rubble once the fire is out, to 4: 30.

Nervous shock

“There are two versions : either the mother has escaped with the child, or she has deposited earth to unlock the door before you lose it “, stated Mr. Cournoyer.

The woman and her two year-old son were transported to the hospital for minor injuries.

According to the director of the fire Department, the father of the boys and the spouse of the woman was in the middle of a hockey game, Cowansville, when the flames have taken birth.

The man arrived home at almost the same time as the firefighters. The latter had to restrain him to prevent him from entering the house in flames, in search of his little.

He had to be hospitalized for a nervous shock.

Castle of cards

A neighbouring couple, Denis Allard and Nathalie Daigle, said to have helped the first responders to take care of the mother and her child before the ambulance arrives.

“It was like a castle of cards that fell apart, was described by Mrs. Daigle in holding back his tears. And the woman, she kept saying : “My son is in the house, my son is in the house !” “

“The mother has done everything to save the little one,” said Mr. Allard. Me, I went close to the door, but forget it, there was no way to get there. After me, two more minutes and the three passed by. “

An investigation has been opened by the Sûreté du Québec to establish the cause of the fire.

The hypothesis of an electrical problem is preferred.