Three dead, 30 missing after Quebec seniors home blaze

2014-02-25 6

Originally published on January 24, 2014

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A fire ripped through a senior citizen's home in Quebec early on Thursday morning, leaving three people dead and 30 others unaccounted for.

The deadly blaze struck at the Résidence du Havre seniors home, in L'Isle-Verte, around 230 kilometres down river from Quebec City.

A witness told The Globe and Mail that he looked out of his window at around 12:30a.m. to check the weather and noticed smoke coming out of the home.

He immediately called 911.

Witnesses described dramatic scenes, with firefighters helping the elderly residents from the burning building while others jumped from the second and third floors.

The 52-unit, three storey, complex was built in 1997, with a newer annex added five years later.

Reports and interviews with persons who worked on the construction of the complex suggested that the older part of the complex was not fitted with a sprinkler system.

The acting mayor said that most of the residents were over 85 with most confined to wheelchairs or used walkers and therefore were unable to escape the fast-moving blaze.

It was a cold, windy night, with temperatures around -20C.

The blaze left three people dead with 30 others unaccounted for."

Emergency crew are still searching for the missing residents.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Welcome to TomoNews, where we animate the most entertaining news on the internets. Come here for an animated look at viral headlines, US news, celebrity gossip, salacious scandals, dumb criminals and much more!

Subscribe now for daily news animations that will knock your socks off.
http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=TomoNewsUS

Check out our official website: http://us.tomonews.net/

Stay connected with us here:
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/TomoNewsUS
Twitter @tomonewsus http://www.twitter.com/TomoNewsUS
Google+ http://gplus.to/TomoNewsUS