ST-JEAN-DE-MATHA, Que. (CP) -- Fire raced through a home north of Montreal on Tuesday, killing a woman and three of her four sons and leaving the other with serious burns.
The victims were a 37-year-old woman and boys aged seven, 10 and 11, said Quebec provincial police spokeswoman Isabelle Gendron.
Their 15-year-old brother managed to flee the burning house and call for help but not before suffering second- and third-degree burns, police said.
``The oldest was on the ground floor,'' Gendron said. ``He realized the fire had begun and he went out to call for help.''
Police said the cause of the fire was not immediately known but added an electrical defect may have been a factor.
The fire occurred at about 2 a.m. in a single-family home in St-Jean-de-Matha, about 100 kilometres north of Montreal.
The mother and the dead children were sleeping on the upper floor of the home.
Police located the father, a truck driver, near Val-d'Or in northwestern Quebec, and escorted him home.
The fire occurred less than a month after a pregnant mother and her seven children, aged 19 months to 11 years, perished in a fire in their family home in West Lincoln, Ont.
The cause of the blaze that claimed the lives of Monica Woerlen and her children remains under investigation.
