DESCHAMBAULT-GRONDINES - Two children were killed as an intense fire ravaged a home west of Quebec City Friday night.
The bodies of a 14-year-old girl and her two-year-old sister were found in the rubble shortly after 10 a.m. on Saturday morning, confirmed Richard Gagne of the Surete du Quebec.
Investigators believe the teenager escaped the home, then ran back in to try and save her young sister.
As their bodies were pulled out of the debris, neighbour Annick Blais spoke about the teenager.
"(She) used to spend a lot of afternoons playing on our slide. The tragedy is hard to deal with," said Blais.
The victims' mother and three other children managed to flee their home in the small community of Deschambault-Grondines, 200 kilometres northeast of Montreal. They were hospitalized, to be treated for nervous shock and minor injuries.
The father was at work, and not home at the time of the incident.
The fire, which broke out around 10 p.m. Friday, took hours to place under control, and rescue operations were hampered by the intensity of the blaze.
Firefighters described flames shooting through the upstairs window and screams coming from the home, but said the heat was too intense to save the girls. When firefighters were able to enter the home, they found the two bodies lying next to each other.
"No one knows how to deal with a catastrophe like this," said Deschambault-Grondines Mayor Gaston Arcand.
The fire may have been caused by an electrical problem, said firefighters. An investigation is underway to determine the exact circumstances of the incident.
