Arson?

Evidently there are some suspicions that three major fires erupting within the space of a single day in the Province of Quebec is simply too circumstantial to overlook.  And, as a result authorities are at work investigating just what might have transpired during that day to have created the conditions for three fires in three separate locations to erupt, with extremely dire consequences.

Two of the fires were located in the Sherbrooke area, the third in Old Montreal.  The two cities are a ninety-minute drive away from one another.  The result of these coincident fires is that two people are dead, another so severely injured that only a miracle will keep him alive, and twenty-one other people were injured.

The most spectacular in terms of disastrous consequences of the fires, took place at Neptune Technologies & Bioressources, the result of an initial huge explosion and two follow-up, smaller explosive concussions, leading to the fire.  There, two people were killed outright, and an additional 19 were sent to hospital, three of whom are seriously burned, in stable condition.
 

Another man sustained burns to 90% of his body, along with severe inhalation injury.  And according to Isabelle Perreault, head of the severe-burn unit at McGill University Hospital Centre, the chance of survival from such serious burns decrease expectations when the victim has also suffered significant inhalation injury.

The  company, when it recovers, will be able to continue production of health products like fish oil.  The plant, which had been undergoing extensive expansion, contained 15,000 litres of highly-flammable acetone, along with other industrial-strength chemicals, according to Sherbrooke Fire chief Gaétan Drouin.


The investigators remain unclear as to what caused the fire but the plant has been destroyed.

Hours later in Valcourt, roughly 40 kilometres from Sherbrooke, a similar incident took place
at a Bombardier Recreational Products complex, where two people were seriously burned.  That
blast took place just after midnight, Friday morning, whereas the Sherbrooke blast occurred at 1:30
p.m. on Thursday.  Both victims of that blast are in a medically induced coma.

The Montreal blaze saw no injuries.  It took place in an unfinished condo project in Old Montreal.
Montreal police are conducting that investigation.  That building was under renovation at the time
of the explosion.

The Montreal skyline is shown from Parc de la Cité-du-Havre as a fire burns in Old Montreal on 
Thursday Nov. 9, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Evan Kitaljevich