ST-JEAN-DE-MATHA, Que. (CP) - Firefighters, who ``know everybody'' in this small town, were shaken Tuesday after pulling the bodies of a woman and her three young sons from a charred home.
``It's not like a big, big town where you don't know your neighbour,'' firefighter Andre Bleau said of St-Jean-de-Matha, a town of 4,000 surrounded by farmland and rolling hills 100 kilometres north of Montreal.
``Here, it's a small town and everybody knows everybody. So you go out for breakfast, you go out anywhere and everybody knows you.
``We know the people. We know the kids. We know everybody.''
Police said the victims were a 37-year-old woman and three of her sons, aged seven, 10 and 11.
A fourth son, who's 15, managed to get help but not before suffering second- and third-degree burns that left him in hospital in critical condition.
The boys' father, a truck driver, was on the road in northwestern Quebec when police located him to give him the terrible news and escort him home.
The cause of the early-morning fire wasn't immediately known but an electrical defect may have been a factor, police said.
Fifteen-year-old Jessica Durand, who goes to the same high school as the surviving son, said she hopes he'll get through the tragedy.
``I lost my father and I had a difficult time,'' Durand said. ``Imagine him, he lost his mother and three brothers. I hope he comes out of it OK.''
Durand said the teen's peers were upset by the news.
``Everyone was crying,'' she said. ``Even those who didn't know him knew that three small children had died. Even if you don't know them it hurts because they were so young.''
While the cause of the fire hasn't been determined, fire Chief Jean-Francois Bruneau said he couldn't find any smoke detectors in the two-storey home.
``I checked on both floors, two times, and I didn't see any,'' Bruneau said.
Mayor Normand Champagne said when he was at the fire station he realized ``our firefighters were very shaken by this event,'' adding everyone knows everyone.
Champagne said firefighters will get any psychological help they need.
He added the whole community is grieving.
``Everybody's sad about the news,'' Champagne said. ``Whatever the family needs, we are there to support them.''
Champagne said the woman worked at the local grocery store and she, along with her husband, put their energy into raising their kids.
Bleau, a retired police officer from Longueuil, near Montreal, who has been with the local fire department for several years, described the mother as ``a very gentle, very nice woman.''
She was always smiling and talking to customers at the store, where she worked as a part-time cashier, he said.
He said many of the town's firefighters have done the job for 20 years but had never experienced a fatal fire. The bad memories will live on, he said.
``It's nearly impossible that somebody (firefighters) doesn't know one of those people.''
