K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist
Several witnesses are helping THE EQUITY trace the path of a man who allegedly drove a flaming camping trailer down chemin Lac-des-Loups near Quyon last Monday night, left the still-flaming trailer at the town’s fire station, and drove away.
The man allegedly shot four times in the direction of a volunteer firefighter who was following him, according to an anonymous radio interview with the firefighter that aired on 104.7 Outaouais on Wednesday.
The firefighter declined THE EQUITY’s interview request but was confirmed through multiple sources to be a member of the Bristol Fire Department.
According to the account, shared on the radio, the firefighter spotted the man towing the flaming trailer on chemin Lac-des-Loups about 10 kilometres north of Quyon and decided to follow it as it headed south toward the village.
“Fire was falling from the trailer,” he said in the interview, adding that it caused trees along the side of the road to catch fire in at least four different places.
He called 9-1-1 to alert the authorities of the fires, continuing to follow the man across Highway 148 and into Quyon, where he watched the man stop his vehicle, unhook the flaming trailer in the parking lot, and take off back up the road he came from.
In the interview he said that since Quyon isn’t part of his fire department’s territory, he didn’t have the right to intervene, so he continued to follow the driver so he could provide updates to the authorities.
Then, once on chemin Swamp, the driver stopped. “He gets out of his vehicle and shoots in my direction with a shotgun,” the firefighter said, who wasn’t hit but whose vehicle was hit twice on the hood.
The firefighter, who was out of cell signal, said he tried to reposition himself so he could update 9-1-1 on the situation. At this point the man allegedly shot twice again in his direction, hitting this vehicle’s radiator.
“Fortunately I didn’t get hit,” he said.
THE EQUITY reached out to the MRC des Collines police several times since the Monday night incident for confirmation of these details, but nobody with knowledge of the file was available to speak before publication deadline.
However, several more witnesses confirmed aspects of what the firefighter recounted. One woman, who was with her boyfriend at his home on chemin Cain just east of chemin Lac-des-Loups, did not see the fire happen but said they woke up Tuesday morning to find trees burnt on either side of their laneway, and firetrucks by the road.
She said she had no idea it had happened, but learned more from the firefighters who were by the side of the road the next morning.
Her boyfriend, who requested to remain anonymous for fear of his own security, said he couldn’t believe someone would endanger people in that way. “There’s so much he could have done to avoid driving through a town full of people with a flaming fireball,” he said.
According to security camera footage acquired from the Quyon ProColour auto body shop at the corner of chemin Lac-des-Loups and Highway 148, the flaming trailer crossed the highway around 11 p.m. Monday night, heading toward the village of Quyon.
A woman named Emilie, who lives in Quyon and who did not wish to publicize her last name, confirmed she saw the flaming trailer, and while her property was unscathed by the flames, said her neighbour’s property and car were damaged by the fire.
“I saw it, [ . . . ] there was a big explosion,” she said, adding that the fire department was there promptly so she went back to bed.
Municipality of Pontiac mayor Roger Larose confirmed that the fire department responded to a call late on Monday night on chemin Cain. “The bush caught on fire,” he said, confirming the department responded to several fires along the way.
He said once the fire department heard the man had unhitched the trailer at the Quyon fire station, firefighters responded to the call in a timely manner and extinguished the fire.
He said the trailer fire didn’t cause any widespread property damage, but a water main in town did break under the pressure caused by firefighters turning off their water source after putting out the trailer fire.
“When they shut the tap off [ . . . ] the pressure busted the pipe,” he said, adding that portions of the village were without water the next day, including Sainte-Marie school, which was forced to close. He added that crews worked to fix the issue and residents had water back within two days.
The MRC des Collines police have not named a suspect, but several witnesses confirmed the man is known to the community.
THE EQUITY has not found any information about why the man was driving a burning trailer.