Her neighbors’ house on fire: she puts her life in danger to save a family

A woman from Quebec set out, without even thinking about it, to rescue a family who was sleeping in a burning house, while she was barefoot in the middle of the February night.

“It’s as if another person had taken control of my body, we no longer think about anything,” says Mireille Labbé, who lives on rue de la Détente, in La Haute-Saint-Charles.

Around 3 a.m. on February 13, 2021, the 42-year-old woman had just settled into her chair after an evening shift at the Quebec University Hospital when she saw a kind of whitish light through her window.

It was when she looked closer that she realized that a neighboring house was catching fire.

“The fireplace exhaust pipe was poorly insulated in the walls. The flames climbed and reached the roof. The detectors did not work,” says M.^me Labbé, two years after the events.

Barefoot in the middle of winter

The good Samaritan then headed at full speed towards the house, barefoot despite a temperature of -26°C, while calling 911.

She first tried to open the front door – which was locked – before beating it to wake the occupants, without success. She then went to the basement window, where the family’s child was sleeping, hoping to break it down.

“The boy woke up and shouted to alert his parents, before opening the door for me. But it created a draft of air and the fire gained strength,” recalls M^me Labbé.

As the owners of the place took time to realize the seriousness of the situation, it was their neighbor who had to enter the house to push them out.

His “duty”

The forty-year-old welcomed her neighbors into her home until the firefighters arrived. Suffering from asthma herself, however, she had to be taken to hospital for smoke inhalation.

For her heroic gesture, Mireille Labbé received the civic medal from the government of Quebec last September.

“I only did my duty,” she concludes soberly.