By Keith Lacey
Several neighbours who looked on in horror as two children remained trapped inside a burning Hanmer home 16 months ago testified Sudbury Fire Department crews took too long to arrive on the scene.
Douglas Croteau, who was the first person on the scene after flames and smoke were detected coming from the residence at 4141 Roy St. in Hanmer just after noon April 22, 2001, told a coroner?s inquest it seemed like an eternity before the first fire truck arrived on the scene.
And when a fire truck with two men arrived around 14 minutes later, Croteau said they appeared lackadaisical.
?They said they couldn?t do anything until the equipment arrived,? said an emotional Croteau. ?They more or less waited around? until a second fire truck arrived about four minutes later. They did nothing. They just sat in their fire truck.?
Croteau was the first witness called at the coroner?s inquest into the deaths of Asha-Jade McLean, 3, her brother Ellias McLean, 4, and their great-grandmother Pearl Shaw, 75.
Several neighbours testified Monday and Tuesday it took between 15 and 20 minutes before firefighters arrived on the scene. Assistant Crown attorney Andrew Slater told the jury ?by the time the fire service arrived and set up? any efforts to rescue the children and Shaw were futile.
The jury also heard several neighbours appeared willing to risk their lives as they tried to get into the home to rescue the two screaming children, but none could withstand the intense heat and dense smoke.
After the first fire truck arrived, it was neighbours and volunteer firefighters who pulled hoses to various areas around the house and to a nearby fire hydrant, said Croteau.
?The volunteer firefighter was instructing us what to do,? he said. ?The two firemen in the truck, I didn?t get their names?they just sat there talking. They weren?t moving.?
The first volunteer fireman he met at the scene commented ?where?s the f?.ing fire truck? as neighbours tried frantically to help during the chaos in the minutes after the fire broke out, said Croteau.
Once fire crews arrived on the scene, they did take command and neighbours left the area and allowed them to do their work, said Croteau.
When asked by Slater if he had any recommendations for the three-woman, two-man jury, Croteau said fire houses in Valley East should be manned around the clock, just like they are in Sudbury.
Valley East continues to have only a handful of full-time firefighters, which allows, in most cases, only one to be on duty at any given time. The full-time firefighter works out of a central hall in Val Caron, while two other fire halls are not staffed at all, but are accessible to volunteers on call.
