Lac-Mégantic’s former fire chief Denis Lauzon, who was in office on July 6, 2013, returned to this hellish night, hours before the tenth anniversary of the Lac-Mégantic train tragedy.
• Read more: 10 years after the Lac-Mégantic tragedy: “I don’t allow myself to cry”
• Read more: Ten years after the Lac-Mégantic tragedy: a respectable recovery!
He and his fellow Suppers are unforgettable events.
In parts of the audio communications between his service and the emergency centre, between the first call and his arrival at the derailment in the city centre, we understand that the situation has taken on an unmistakable dimension.
Denise Lawson, who left the region in 2016 to become a teacher at the Quebec Fire Protection Institute, says she has learned to manage the stress and anxiety that still haunts her a decade after the tragedy.
VAT News
As many of his fellow firefighters showed the night of the derailment, he had to learn to suppress bad memories.
Among the positives he retains, in addition to the resilience of his community, his brigade supported approximately 80 fire departments from Quebec and the United States in the weeks following the tragedy.
*Watch Jean-François Desbiens’ statement in the video above*
