Twins, 12, die after fire at Gatineau, Que., apartment
QMI Agency
First posted: Monday, February 23, 2015 11:08 AM EST | Updated: Monday, February 23, 2015 02:24 PM EST
OTTAWA - Family and friends are devastated after an apartment fire in Gatineau, Que., Saturday night claimed the lives of 12-year-old twins Gabrielle Cormier and Jacob Rondeau.
The twins were left unattended when fire broke out late Saturday in the two-storey apartment building across the river from Ottawa.
Firefighters pulled the unconscious children from the building. They were rushed to hospital in critical condition, but police say they both died from their injuries Sunday night at Ottawa’s Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario.
“I love you my loves,” mother Ericka Cormier wrote on her Facebook page Monday morning. “Rest in peace. I will truly miss both of you.”
Cormier was out of town Saturday, and left the twins in the care of their older brother Daniel Rondeau, 17. He was visibly shaken as he sat on the steps of the apartment while relatives embraced Sunday.
Daniel Rondeau told QMI Agency Monday he had stepped out of the apartment briefly with his girlfriend Andrea Miller to run to the corner for cigarettes.
Before leaving, they tucked the children into bed. Jacob was still awake when they stepped out, and Miller told him, “Don’t worry.”
They stopped for a slice of pizza, and were a block away when they noticed an ambulance speeding past.
When the couple returned, firefighters were already pulling the unconscious twins from the building.
Fire crews said the blaze might have started in the kitchen because food had been left unattended on a hot stove.
Neighbour Andre Valiquette shares a wall with the family. He said his son Ben, a close friend of Jacob’s, is “devastated.”
Valiquette smelled smoke, then heard the smoke detector, and witnessed a small flickering flame suddenly explode into a fireball. He called out, but nobody answered.
“Then I heard firefighters say there were two kids upstairs,” he said crying.
When Daniel Rondeau returned to the scene, Valiquette explained there was a fire.
Rondeau asked if everyone got out, and Valiquette said, “My family did.”
Valiquette said Daniel has already absorbed a great deal of blame on Facebook about the tragedy and he hopes people will leave him alone to grieve.
“He loved those kids,” Valiquette said. “I never saw a man cry like that.”
The twins’ great aunt was at the apartment Monday and said Daniel “feels terribly guilty.”
Gatineau cops say no charges will be laid.
“The investigation revealed that the cause of the fire is accidental and resulted from a cooking fire,” police said in a release Monday.
Family and friends gathered at the home of two siblings who were rushed to hospital after a fire broke out in the apartment at 75 Marangere St. in Gatineau late Saturday, Feb. 21, 2015. DANI-ELLE- DUBE/OTTAWA SUN/QMI AGENCY
Twins, 12, die after fire at Gatineau, Que., apartment | Canada | News | Toronto
QMI Agency
First posted: Monday, February 23, 2015 11:08 AM EST | Updated: Monday, February 23, 2015 02:24 PM EST
OTTAWA - Family and friends are devastated after an apartment fire in Gatineau, Que., Saturday night claimed the lives of 12-year-old twins Gabrielle Cormier and Jacob Rondeau.
The twins were left unattended when fire broke out late Saturday in the two-storey apartment building across the river from Ottawa.
Firefighters pulled the unconscious children from the building. They were rushed to hospital in critical condition, but police say they both died from their injuries Sunday night at Ottawa’s Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario.
“I love you my loves,” mother Ericka Cormier wrote on her Facebook page Monday morning. “Rest in peace. I will truly miss both of you.”
Cormier was out of town Saturday, and left the twins in the care of their older brother Daniel Rondeau, 17. He was visibly shaken as he sat on the steps of the apartment while relatives embraced Sunday.
Daniel Rondeau told QMI Agency Monday he had stepped out of the apartment briefly with his girlfriend Andrea Miller to run to the corner for cigarettes.
Before leaving, they tucked the children into bed. Jacob was still awake when they stepped out, and Miller told him, “Don’t worry.”
They stopped for a slice of pizza, and were a block away when they noticed an ambulance speeding past.
When the couple returned, firefighters were already pulling the unconscious twins from the building.
Fire crews said the blaze might have started in the kitchen because food had been left unattended on a hot stove.
Neighbour Andre Valiquette shares a wall with the family. He said his son Ben, a close friend of Jacob’s, is “devastated.”
Valiquette smelled smoke, then heard the smoke detector, and witnessed a small flickering flame suddenly explode into a fireball. He called out, but nobody answered.
“Then I heard firefighters say there were two kids upstairs,” he said crying.
When Daniel Rondeau returned to the scene, Valiquette explained there was a fire.
Rondeau asked if everyone got out, and Valiquette said, “My family did.”
Valiquette said Daniel has already absorbed a great deal of blame on Facebook about the tragedy and he hopes people will leave him alone to grieve.
“He loved those kids,” Valiquette said. “I never saw a man cry like that.”
The twins’ great aunt was at the apartment Monday and said Daniel “feels terribly guilty.”
Gatineau cops say no charges will be laid.
“The investigation revealed that the cause of the fire is accidental and resulted from a cooking fire,” police said in a release Monday.
Family and friends gathered at the home of two siblings who were rushed to hospital after a fire broke out in the apartment at 75 Marangere St. in Gatineau late Saturday, Feb. 21, 2015. DANI-ELLE- DUBE/OTTAWA SUN/QMI AGENCY
Twins, 12, die after fire at Gatineau, Que., apartment | Canada | News | Toronto