By Keith Lacey
Gilles Lafond said he was ?disgusted? with the actions of Greater Sudbury Fire Department firefighters after being enraged it took them so long to arrive on the scene of a deadly house fire near his Hanmer home 16 months ago.
Lafond lived a few houses away from 4141 Roy St. when a fire broke out at that address just after noon April 22, 2001. The fire claimed the lives of Asha-Jade McLean, 3, her brother Ellias, 4, and their great-grandmother Pearl Shaw, 75.
Lafond testified at a coroner?s inquest into the deaths that still haunt neighbours who tried unsuccessfully to get inside the burning home.
When two firefighters originally arrived on the scene, ?to me they weren?t moving and I got so upset,? said Lafond, who himself acted heroically that tragic day.
A few minutes later, after several firefighters finally arrived on the scene, a man he believed to be a fire chief with a white hat ordered two of four of his crew to enter the burning home, but all seemed reluctant, said Lafond.
?The guy in charge, the fire chief, he ordered two guys through the window, but all four were looking at each other (and didn?t appear to want to enter the home),? said Lafond. ?I got so disgusted when I saw that.?
One of the firefighters came out very quickly when a bell on his equipment signalled he was out of oxygen, said Lafond.
?The chief told him ?don?t just stand there? and ordered him to go replace his oxygen tank. ?I got so disgusted, I just walked away,? he said.
Lafond also described how neighbours Douglas Croteau and Wayne Collins tried to enter the home, but simply couldn?t make their way through the smoke, flames and heat.
Lafond said he saw Croteau try to grab the great-grandmother and then run into the home after her, but he came out coughing from the smoke within seconds.
Collins ?shot himself? into the front entrance of the home and was inside for about 45 seconds and was yelling at the two children to come to him, but Lafond was close enough to hear the kids saying ?no, no?.
After recovering from a bout of coughing, Collins again tried to go inside, but exited with puss in his eyes and told everyone outside there was no way anyone was going to gain access through the front door, said Lafond.
?Wayne was freaking out and panicked and said the kids can?t breath, the kids can?t breath and there was no air, so he kicked out some windows,? said Lafond.
Croteau fetched him a ladder and he used it to break a kitchen window. He tried to get inside and yell for the
children.
?I thought if the kids were in that room I would be able to grab them,? he said. ?I yelled ?is anyone in there and I heard the kids yelling ?no, no??they were far away.
?I stuck half my body inside the window, but I almost passed out. I don?t know how I got back to the ladder and climbed back out. I couldn?t breath. It was so hot and the smoke was so thick.?
After catching his breath, Lafond said he went to another part of the house and saw Collins trying unsuccessfully to douse some flames with a garden hose.
That?s when he finally heard firefighters had arrived.
But his relief turned to disgust because neither firefighter had a mask and there was no fire truck with proper equipment around.
They didn?t try to get inside until neighbours informed the senior firefighter about the children, said Lafond.
That attempt lasted about five seconds, he said.
?The guy said I?m going to die if I don?t have a mask. If I go in there, I won?t come back out.?
That same firefighter uttered the words ?where?s the f?ing fire truck, it should be here by now?, said Lafond.
An equipped fire truck finally arrived about two minutes later, he said.
Lafond said he again became upset when the fire truck pulled up near the driveway and not near a fire hydrant a couple of hundred feet away.
He and some other neighbours uncoiled water hoses to the fire hydrant, but didn?t know how or have the equipment to connect the hose, he said.
He ran back to the house, made sure there were no kinks in the water hoses and finally someone turned on the water and firefighters took the hose and started pouring water on the fire, he said.
When asked if he had any recommendations to make, Lafond said Valley East deserves full-time firefighters.
In earlier testimony, Collins testified this tragedy could have been prevented is emergency crews had arrived faster than they did.
?I felt we could have saved the children. All we needed was breathing apparatus,? said Collins.
Collins confirmed he entered the house twice before emergency crews arrived, but had to leave because of heavy smoke.
During his first trip inside, he managed to cry out to the two children to come to him. They heard him but wouldn't come to him.
If emergency crews had arrived with breathing apparatus at this point, he believes the children could have been saved, Collins testified.
Several witnesses have testified they believe it took between 15 and 20 minutes for an equipped fire truck to arrive on the scene.
The inquest is expected to hear from an expert next week who will give his opinion on how long it took for the equipped fire truck to arrive after a 9-1-1 call was placed shortly after noon.
The inquest, which started Monday, has been postponed one week because one of the lawyers at the inquest has had a death in his family.
The inquest before a three-woman, two-man jury is expected to call 54 witnesses and last all next week and into a third week.
