An indigenous rights activist recognized in Abitibi for her work with the most disadvantaged recommends vigilance after the fire at her home on January 18 that killed one person.
“I tried to open the window with my fingers and saw my blood flow. That’s when I said to myself that I wouldn’t make it,” recalls Carole “Coco” Marcil, her voice broken by emotion.
Photo provided by Carole Marcil
Carole Marcil was hospitalized after the fatal fire that destroyed her home on January 18.
A week after the tragedy, the sixty-year-old is still haunted by memories of the violent fire that destroyed her home and killed her neighbor.
“I was lying in bed with a 15 pound blanket over my head and my arm outstretched screaming, ‘I’m here! I’m here!” to the firefighter. As soon as he touched my arm, I passed out,” she says.
A good life”
After spending several days in an induced coma at Montreal’s Sacré Coeur Hospital, Coco Marcil was able to find her loved ones at her only daughter’s home on Thursday.
However, when she returned to the scene of the fire Friday morning, she couldn’t help but notice the absence of her 68-year-old neighbor Martine Boucher, who died in the fire.
“When I came home, she was waving at me all the time, all the time… She didn’t miss a single time. She never cared, this lady, and she’s been there for 19 years. A good life,” recalls Coco Marcil.
Criminal negligence?
According to information from the Marcil family, a man known for emptying his ashtrays in the garbage is believed to be the cause of the fire. A man in his 70s was also arrested by Sûreté du Québec (SQ) investigators on Wednesday morning before being released.
Charges of negligent bodily harm and death could soon be brought against him, the SQ said.
“The consequences of criminal negligence are not limited to the victims, but also extend to those close to them. My 81-year-old mother was marked for life and so was my only daughter,” lamented Coco Marcil.
She now hopes that will change.
“If only I could tell someone not to throw their ashtray in the trash that I’m stopping them from doing, I would have been useful in my shitty story that I’m living,” she points out.
protect the poor
The fire that destroyed Carole Marcil’s home quickly made the rounds in Val-d’Or, where the worker is a real pillar for people affected by homelessness.
“I love this woman, she is so extraordinary. It’s beautiful what she’s doing with the poorest, First Nations and the homeless in Val-d’Or and Abitibi,” said her friend Jean-Marie Lapointe, who met her while filming the documentary series Face à la rue.
The one who campaigns for indigenous people’s rights also appeared before the Viens Commission, a 2018 commission of inquiry into relations between indigenous peoples and certain public services.
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