Quebec seniors home fire death toll rises

MONTREAL: Canadian firefighters combed through ice and charred wreckage Friday in a grim search for the remains of residents of a burnt out Quebec seniors home, amid fears that more than 30 died.

Police updated the confirmed death toll to eight, after a day battling harsh winter conditions while crews cut through a sheet of ice left behind by fire hoses and investigated the cause of the blaze.

Quebec provincial police spokesman Guy Lapointe told reporters the search would be suspended at nightfall and resume the next day to allow physically and emotionally exhausted rescuers to rest.

More equipment is also being brought in to help in the search. The fire at the 52-unit residence in the small town of L´Isle-Verte, 450 kilometers (280 miles) northeast of Montreal, broke out just after midnight Thursday.

Authorities managed to evacuate 23 people from one third of the building during the fire.They are now trying to determine the fate of others who may have been trapped inside.

They are also "searching for the cause of the blaze, where it originated, and how the fire spread," said Lapointe.

But the task is arduous, with extreme cold freezing equipment and forcing workers to rotate out to warm up at least every hour.

Lapointe declined to comment on the possible causes of the fire at this early stage of the investigation. Officials said the building met safety codes, but that has sparked a debate about strengthening regulations. Initial indications suggest that the oldest part of the building, constructed in 1997, was not equipped with an automatic fire sprinkler system.

Nearly two-thirds of the residents are more than 85 years old and many are in wheelchairs, use walkers, suffer from serious diseases including Alzheimers and are reliant on caregivers.