One Injured as Abandoned Home Burns Down

A fire in Kahnawake completely destroyed an abandoned residence at the beginning of the OCR Monday night. The blaze broke out in the building at 10:24 pm according the Kahnawake Peacekeepers. It quickly spread to two neighbouring homes. Kahnawake Fire Brigade (KFB) Chief David Scott says it was a difficult and intense fire.

“The middle house, Laura Norton’s, is finished,” Scott said. “The house (Next door), Gale Laborgne’s, has severe damage to it. We caught that in time. We had water supply issues with the old fire hydrants that are in the area that we couldn’t get the supply that we were needing. Once we established our priorities we eventually got into Gale’s house, up into the attic and extinguished it. It was an intense fire.”

Scott says it was made even more difficult because of the proximity of the other homes. It took them about two hours to bring the fire under control. The Kahnawake Peacekeepers were able to evacuate all of the homes in the surrounding area.

Scott says one firefighter was overcome by smoke, and at the insistence of the Paramedics was taken to the Anna Laberge Hospital in Chateauguay for treatment.

The KFB believes the blaze was intentionally set. “Definitely. An abandoned house. From what I understand kids were partying in there, big kids,” Scott said. “I guess that will be left up to the Peacekeepers now to do what they’ve got to do.”

Lance Delisle grew up in the house that burned to the ground. He says no one has lived there in several years. “It hurts. It’s my childhood home,” Delisle said.  “There’s no words. No words. I’m just glad that the Kahnawake Fire department was there. They were there very quickly.”