“When we arrived, we could already see smoke coming from the back of the building. It was noted that there was already the start of a fire. We raised the alarm as soon as we arrived, but we couldn't do anything to try to save him,” explains Alexandre Fafard-Milette, director of the Maskinongé Fire Department.
A look back at the progress of the intervention with Alexandre Fafard-Milette, director of the Maskinongé Fire Department. (Sylvain Mayer, Le Nouvelliste)
Faced with the severity of the blaze, the Maskinongé firefighters called on their colleagues from Louiseville, Yamachiche, Sainte-Ursule, Saint-Barthélemy and Saint-Justin. Around fifty people were mobilized to fight the fire. This originated at the rear of the building, which housed a furniture manufacturing factory and offices.
No injuries were reported, as no one was inside the building when emergency services arrived. The bitter cold, however, made the firefighters' task a little more difficult, especially since there were no functioning fire hydrants nearby, so they had to transport water to the site.
The factory is a total loss. (Sylvain Mayer/Le Nouvelliste)
“Our largest employer”
A family business founded in 1983 in Maskinongé, Bermex is a subsidiary of the BDM+ Group, also located in Louiseville. His specialty is making solid wood furniture for dining rooms, such as bistro tables, bar stools and cabinets.
The firefighters' work was complicated by the presence of several chemicals, such as solvents, dyes, paints and varnishes used in the production of furniture. (Sylvain Mayer/Le Nouvelliste)
The firefighters' work was complicated by the presence of several chemicals, such as solvents, dyes, paints and varnishes used in the production of furniture.
A mobile Urgence-Environnement laboratory was also on site to check the air quality during the blaze. However, no alert was given by the team reporting to the Ministry of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks.
A mobile Urgence-Environnement laboratory was also on site to check the air quality during the blaze. (Sylvain Mayer/Le Nouvelliste)
The mayor of Maskinongé, Roger Michaud, spent the afternoon on the site. “It was our biggest employer, but what is the company going to do? I have to wait to discuss with them,” he explains. “Are they going to rebuild? I don’t know any more at the moment, I didn’t see them there.”
“Hoping that the employees who were there will be relocated to the company's other factories so that no one loses their job.”
— Roger Michaud, mayor of Maskinongé
At the end of the afternoon, mechanical excavators were on site to bring down the walls of the building which had remained standing. Although the fire was brought under control, flames still escaped from the ruins of the building. “They have it for part of the evening, maybe the night too, to be sure that it doesn’t start again,” specifies the chief magistrate.
It is still too early to know the causes of the conflagration. “We will see what the owners decide to do. It is too early to speculate,” concludes Roger Michaud. On site, a poster also announced that the infrastructure was for sale.
Roger Michaud, mayor of Maskinongé. (Stéphane Lessard/Stéphane Lessard)
Reached by telephone, the president of the company, Philippe Darveau, did not want to comment on the future of the Bermex installations in Maskinongé. “We are in crisis management and at the same time, it is a Christmas weekend, so we are working with all that,” he mentions.
He claims to have had an emergency meeting of the management committee during the afternoon. “The fire was still burning and we were talking about how to manage the situation with suppliers, with customers, with you the media, with our employees, etc.”
On Monday, the company's administrators should normally take stock of the situation and announce what will happen to the BDM+ Group's facilities in Maskinongé as well as the workers who worked at the factory, according to the businessman.
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