Deaths of 32 seniors in Quebec inferno not criminal: Crown
• Nobody experienced the horror of the seniors’ residence fire in L’Isle-Verte, Que., more deeply than Jean- Eudes Fraser, forced to abandon a rescue attempt of his mother and look on as flames engulfed the building and she perished on her third-floor balcony.
But as he learned Monday that there will be no criminal charges as a result of the Jan. 23, 2014, Résidence du Havre fire that claimed 32 lives, Fraser accepted the Crown’s decision.
“There were failings on the part of several people, and put together we know what they caused, but laying criminal charges against a specific person is more difficult,” Fraser, who lost his 88-year-old mother, Angéline Guichard- Fraser in the fire, told the National Post.
“If someone went to prison, what would it change? It’s not going to bring back the victims,” he said from his home in L’Isle-Verte. “I will definitely never forget that night of horror, but I try to move on.”
A coroner’s inquest reported last February that the building lacked proper safeguards to house disabled seniors, that the attendant on duty abandoned residents when the fire broke out and that firefighters were slow to respond.
But none of the failings amounted to criminal behaviour that could be proven in court, prosecutors determined.
After meeting with survivors and victims’ families to share news of the decision, Crown prosecutor Annie Landreville told a news conference the fire was by all appearances accidental and that there was not enough evidence to support a conviction for criminal negligence causing death.
The Crown, Landreville said, “is not in a position to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a criminal act was committed at any moment, either on the night of Jan. 23, 2014, or in the days, weeks and months afterwards, in connection with the fire at the Résidence du Havre.”
Corner Cyrille Delage had concluded that, although it was impossible to pinpoint the cause of the fire, it appeared to have started accidentally near the residence’s ground- floor kitchen.
Landreville agreed that there was no evidence of arson. She said that even if the behaviour of certain unnamed people could have “verged on” criminal negligence, it was insufficient to lay charges.
To be convicted of criminal negligence, she said, the accused has to have shown “wanton or reckless disregard for the lives or safety of others.”
Fire broke out shortly after midnight and swept quickly through the older wing of the Résidence du Havre.
All but one of the 32 victims, ranging in age from 78 to 99, lived in the older wing, which was built of wood and had no sprinkler system. A newer addition, separated by a firewall and equipped with sprinklers, did not burn.
The inquest heard that only one staff member was on duty when the fire alarm sounded — night watchman Bruno Bélanger. He testified that he made no initial effort to rescue sleeping residents, many of whom had limited mobility. Instead he said he followed “protocol” and went to alert the building’s co-owner, who had an apartment in the newer wing.
Bélanger told Radio- Canada Monday that memories of the fire will haunt him for the rest of his life but he is tired of feeling targeted as bearing responsibility. “I hope the chapter is really being closed, because I am really fed up hearing about it,” he said.
Jacqueline Dumont, who survived the fire, told reporters that she was “very disappointed” that nobody will be charged.
“In my mind, it was somebody’s fault. It didn’t start on its own,” she said. “The night watchman, who was there to watch over us, where was he?”