Luc Marineau is in shock over the sudden loss of his home to a fast-burning fire.
“It's devastating. Right now I can't even start realizing all what we had and what we're missing," he says.
Fire ripped through the Marineau residence Wednesday afternoon in Chelsea, Quebec. By the time volunteer firefighters arrived, it was already too late. “It was already involved,” says Andre Hamelin, Fire Chief with the Chelsea Fire Department. “It was a two story house and flames were already coming out of the roof for about 80% of the roof.”
But while Marineau mourns the loss of his home and possessions, he’s grateful he didn’t lose more. Neither he nor his children were home at the time, but his wife was. She escaped the house, but then, possibly in a state of shock, she tried to re-enter in search of their family pets.
A quick-thinking neighbour stopped her. “She wanted to go back for one of her dogs. And I grabbed her by the waist and I led her to the end of her driveway,” says Brenda Lee Presault. “And I was just holding her because she was in shock."
“They stopped her from going back in the house, and I'm very grateful for that," says Marineau.
His wife was taken to hospital with burns to her arm and neck. As firefighters got the blaze under control, he found his dogs, safe and sound.
The fire is being considered accidental. Andre Hamelin says investigators are looking at the possibility of lit mosquito coils being caught by a gust of wind.
Regardless, the house is destroyed. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s only material,” says Marineau. “So, I’m shocked right now, but there’s no human loss.”
