32 presumed dead in Quebec fire, 8 confirmed

L'ISLE-VERTE, Quebec (AP)

The painstaking search through the iced-over remains of a burned-out Quebec retirement home resumed yesterday morning, with friends and relatives of the missing awaiting news. Just eight bodies of the 32 presumed dead had been recovered.

A massive blaze swept through the three-storey building in L'Isle-Verte, about 140 miles (225 kilometres) northeast of Quebec City early Thursday. Quebec Provincial Police Lt Guy Lapointe at a news conference yesterday lowered the number of missing from about 30 to 24 based on more detailed information.

Officials have formally identified two of the victims. Their names were to be released later yesterday.

"The 24 people that are still missing, I think we can assume the worst. We're not going to confirm any deaths until we've actually recovered the remains," Lapointe said.

The cause of the massive blaze that swept through the Residence du Havre was under investigation, and police asked the public for any videos or photographs that might yield clues. Lapointe declined to confirm reports that the fire began in the room of a resident who was smoking a cigarette, but said that is one possibility.

Search teams of police, firefighters and coroners slowly and methodically picked their way through the ruins, working in shifts in the extreme cold with temperatures hovering around minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 20 degrees Celsius) Friday.

As crews used steam to melt thick sheets of ice coating the rubble, Marc-Henri Saindon waited for his mother's body to be recovered. Marie-Jeanne Gagnon, five months shy of her 100th birthday, had moved to the home on New Year's Eve, her son said.

"She really liked it there. She was well treated and she had friends there," Saindon said Friday.

Spray from firefighters' hoses left the home resembling a macabre snow palace, the ruins encased in thick white ice dripping with icicles. Workers took a break over night because of the freezing cold.

The tragedy cast such a pall over the village of 1,500 that psychologists were sent door to door.

HORRIBLE TRAGEDY

"This is a horrible tragedy," Mayor Ursule Theriault said.

Witnesses told horrific tales of people trapped and killed by the flames. Many of the 50 or so residents were over 85 and used wheelchairs or walkers. Some had Alzheimer's.

Pascal Fillion, who lives nearby, said he saw someone use a ladder to try to rescue a man cornered on his third-floor balcony. The man was crying out for help before he fell to the ground, engulfed in flames, Fillion said.

"I lost my friends," said Nicole Belanger, who worked at the home part-time for the past four years. "The residents loved us and we loved them."

Quebec Minister of Social Services Veronique Hivon said many of the village's volunteer firefighters had relatives at the retirement home.

"People are in a state of shock," she said. "We want them to know the services are there by going door to door. It's an important building that's a part of their community that just disappeared."