ISBN : 9782897990404
Year of publication : 2020
Nombre de pages : 300
Langue : Anglais#French</trp-gettext#!trpEnglish#
On January 1, 1980, arson causes consternation in a small mining town in northern Quebec. Forty-eight people, gathered to celebrate New Year's Day, were killed. Forty-one people died on the spot, and seven others succumbed to burns. Such an event had a profound effect on the population of Chapais, which at the time numbered three thousand five hundred inhabitants. The tragedy led to major changes in public building safety laws and the creation of two burn treatment centers in Quebec. But what about the survivors? What was the impact of the fire on individuals and on the remote community?
More than twenty years after the disaster, a social service researcher takes to the road to meet direct victims, mourners and responders from all walks of life, to hear their stories. How did they heal their wounds at a time when there were no emergency response procedures? This and much more will be found in archival documents, in the words of people sometimes torn between anger and reconciliation. The people of Chapais had to deploy ferocious energy to survive. Their experience will shed light on the challenges of recovery after such a tragedy. The fortieth anniversary in 2020 will be an ideal opportunity to pass on these discoveries and the resulting recommendations.
Thérèse Villeneuve, PhD TS, has triple training in social work. After more than thirty years working in hospitals and CLSCs, she was a lecturer at the Université de Montréal. Following the Chapais fire, she worked with burn victims, hence her interest in the victims of this historic fire.
