St. Jerome, QB Hospital Fire, Jan 1989

FIVE DIE IN HOSPITAL FIRE BELIEVED SET BY PATIENT.

St. Jerome, Que (CP) -- LOUISE BERTRAND spent an agonizing four hours Sunday searching for news about her sister PIERRETTE, a 47 year old patient at Hotel Dieu Hospital.
The hospital initially told BERTRAND her sister was fine, but later she found out the truth -- PIERRETTE was one of five people killed in a fire that ripped through the building early Sunday morning.
"I realize the hospital staff was very busy," BERTRAND said in an interview from her home in Drux Montagnes, Que., north of Montreal, "(But) by the time we found out she was dead it was 1 p.m."
Police believe a psychiatric patient who had just been admitted to the hospital lit the fire that killed him and the four other patients, all residents of Quebec.
MICHEL DILILLO, 53, of St. Jerome, was alone in an isolation room in the basment emergency ward when the fire started at 1 a.m., said Const. Robert Poeti of the Quebec provincial police.
When hospital staff opened the door to the isolation cell, "the fire exploded out the room like a volcano," said Dr. Andre St. Denis, the hospital's director of professional services.
Provincial police identified the other victims as CHARLES LeBRUN, 37, of Gatineau and JOSEPH VERVILLE, 92, and SIMONE MAGNAN, 74, both of Ste. Therese.
LeBRUN and DILILLO were the only victims from the emergency department, according to the police. Both died of their burns.
Two other victims, VERVILLE and MAGNAN, had been terminally ill and were expected to die within days. They died while being transferred to another hospital, St. Denis said.
BERTRAND, who was in intensive care after a heart attack, was transported to another hospital before she died. St. Denis said an autopsy will determine the cause of her death.
Some hospital employees speculated that DILILLO used matches to set fire to the sheets in his room. But St. Denis said psychiatric patients are usually searched when they are admitted to the isolation room and any potentially dangerous materials, including matches, are taken from them.

Lethbridge Herald Alberta Canada 1989-01-30
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!