POINTE-CLAIRE - A man is in mourning after a weekend fire in a Pointe-Claire apartment building snuffed out the lives of his teenaged son and the boy's mother.

Carolin Boghosian and her 14-year-old son Razmig Soukassian, were unable to escape when flames erupted from their home at 504 St. Jean Blvd. near Douglas Shand Ave. at about 2:15 a.m.

Razmig's father, Gary Soukiassian, said the teen was a good, loyal son, and it probably affected his reluctance to leave his mother behind.

"I guess Carolin was trying to put out the fire and Raz wouldn't want to leave his mother alone. You don't abandon your mother," said Soukassian.

Boghosian and Soukassian's younger child Raffi, 11, was able to escape.

"He says as soon as he got out, I don't know if there was suction or combustion, (but) he says the door slammed shut behind (him), and Raffi was left in the corridor, and he couldn't open the door. (Carolin) was saying the handle was too hot, couldn't open the door," explained Soukassian.

The boy told neighbours his brother had been playing with a candle before the fire started. Police and firefighters haven't determined the cause of the blaze.

Soukassian said he desperately searched for Boghosian and his sons outside the apartment complex.

"I went running around the building, I really don't know how many times, screaming, "Razmig! Carolin! Razmig! Carolin! And at one point looked around and everybody in the building was out, but there was no Razmig and Carolin," he said.

Razmig turned 14 years old on the day he died.

"I kept on telling the police officer, ‘God can't take my son on his birthday,'" said Soukassian.

No working smoke detector

The Montreal fire department has determined there was no working smoke detector in the apartment at the time of the fire.

It said that 80 per cent of fire fatalities on the island of Montreal have occurred in homes where there was no operational fire alarm.

Everyone should once again check the batteries in their alarms – or buy and install one immediately, said Pierre Sigouin of the Montreal fire department.

"For $5.43 at a large retail store, you can buy a smoke detector that can save your life. Because when you sleep you lose all your senses, and usually sound is the first thing you will hear, and you will evacuate the building," he said.