Montreal mayor, fire department pay tribute to firefighter who died during rescue operation

Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante and the Montreal Fire Department paid tribute to firefighter Pierre Lacroix Monday, after his body was retrieved from the St. Lawrence River, where he died performing a water rescue.

Montreal fire chief Richard Liebmann confirmed Monday morning that search and rescue crews spotted the missing firefighter with a camera in the Saint Lawrence River among the wreckage of the boat that sunk.

Lacroix, a married father of two, died rescuing the occupants of a small boat in distress in what Liebmann referred to as an "extremely dangerous" area. "Firefighter Lacroix made the ultimate sacrifice coming to the assistance of two people," Liebmann said in announcing his death. Plante said that flags in the City of Montreal will be at half-mast in honour of the firefighter, who was based out of Fire Station 64 in the Montreal borough of Lachine

"The City of Montreal is a big family," she said. "I invite the population to have a thought for all those who serve us, sometimes at the risk of their lives."

Crews used a camera to confirm that the firefighter was trapped under the boat, and the fire chief said later that it would take some time to recover him in the dangerous and fast-moving Lachine Rapids.