'They were coming to save us': Inquest opens into deaths of two Quebec firefighters

Linda Simard says her husband frantically told her to call 911 as he watched two volunteer firefighters get swept away in rushing floodwaters in Quebec's Charlevoix region last year.

Linda Simard says her husband frantically told her to call 911 as he watched two volunteer firefighters get swept away in rushing floodwaters in Quebec's Charlevoix region last year.

Simard was one of the first people to testify in the coroner's inquest that opened on Monday into the deaths of the two men, who fell off their amphibious vehicle and into the river on their way to rescue her and her husband.

"It’s very hard," Simard said during her teary testimony. "They were coming to save us."

Coroner Andrée Kronström began hearing from witnesses at the courthouse in La Malbaie, Que., during an inquiry that will span several days in April and May, overlapping the first anniversary of the deaths of Christopher Lavoie, 23, and Régis Lavoie, 55.

Kronström said the goal is not to assign blame but to better understand what happened when the two men, who were not related, lost their lives on May 1, 2023.

The deaths have been the subject of much talk and rumours in the small community of St-Urbain, northeast of Quebec City.

"We'll put that all aside and we will hear the witnesses who will come to testify under oath and we will be able to grasp what really happened," Kronström said. "What drives me, and what will drive everyone here, is the quest for truth.”