L’Isle-Verte | Elected as councilor on November 3, 2013, Ginette Caron had no idea what awaited her a few weeks later as deputy mayor: managing the first 36 hours of one of the worst tragedies in Quebec history.
For those who know the TV series, a deputy mayor is like The designated survivor with Kiefer Sutherland, that is to say a rather banal title until the moment the world collapses.
For Ginette Caron, everything collapsed on the night of January 23, 2014, and unlike Sutherland’s fictional character who must replace the American president at short notice, she was faced with reality.
“It was a real horror film, a larger-than-life drama that sometimes happens elsewhere, but there it wasn’t on TV, it was at home,” confides the one who replaced Mayor Ursule Thériault, on vacation outside. When I spoke with Ursule, I told her: for us, it’s as big as Lac-Mégantic.”
The current mayor of L’Isle-Verte, Ginette Caron, in front of the Résidence de l’Ancrage which is being built on the same land as the Résidence du Havre, which burned down on January 23, 2014.
Photo Louis Deschênes
Keep control
That night, Ginette Caron was awakened by the pager of her partner, then a volunteer firefighter. Shortly after, she received a call from the fire chief, Yvan Charron.
“He said to me: it’s serious, come away, it’s very big.”
Once there, she can only observe the facts, while dozens of elderly people are trapped in the flames in front of helpless firefighters.
Despite the scale of the disaster, the “designated survivor” must remain in control.
It makes the primary school gymnasium available to emergency services where elderly people living in the second part of the residence can be sheltered.
She is responsible for relocating evacuees to families and seniors’ residences where they can have support from relatives and professionals.
A farmer’s experience
The deputy mayor believes that her experience as a farmer and co-owner of a strawberry farm for several years allowed her to manage the situation, even if the tragedy compares to nothing.
“It will seem funny, but in the fields, if there is a problem with rot or watering, it is not in two weeks that we must act, it is now,” explains the woman who employed 150 pickers.
Ginette Caron admits that what was most difficult was welcoming families who came to get information at the gym.
“People asked me: where is my father, where is my mother, but I had nothing specific to say to anyone,” she recalls with emotion.
Sadly, these loved ones had either died or were seriously injured in the hospital.
Ginette Caron was elected mayor of L’Isle-Verte in 2017 and she is still in office.