Nearly two years after being thrown several meters into the air and burned to the third degree by the explosion of the Bois Ouvré factory in Beauceville, a miraculous man is having difficulty getting used to his new life.
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“Every day I look in the mirror and see everything I’ve lost that will probably never come back. It’s difficult. It still happens to me to tell myself that I would have preferred to die”, breathes Olivier Marchand, a year and a half after the tragedy.
The 36-year-old roofer had barely settled on the roof of the Bois Ouvré factory in Beauceville when an explosion blew him about twenty feet in the air on September 20, 2021.
Photo archives, QMI Agency (Marc Vallières)
Three people died and five others were injured in the incident just over a year and a half ago.
He fell back to the ground after falling about two stories, right in the middle of the blaze.
“I can still hear the screams in the factory saying: ‘We’re going to die!’ When I think about it, it sends shivers down my spine,” he confided to the Log.
Under the adrenaline and completely naked – his clothes having been consumed by the flames – Mr. Marchand managed to get up and leave the building through a hole in a wall which had just collapsed, before losing consciousness.
A new life
It wasn’t until three months later that he woke up from his coma, 60 pounds lighter and a long rehabilitation ahead of him.
Burned in the third degree on more than 70% of the body, he had to receive innumerable skin grafts and have the fingers of his left hand amputated. All of his ribs were also broken and his knees fractured when he hit the ground.
Photo provided by Olivier Marchand
Olivier Marchand spent three months in a coma after the fire.
“The hardest thing was not the pain. It was to see my hands and my face being completely destroyed and no longer being able to function normally,” says Olivier Marchand.
“My physical appearance is the biggest mourning I have to do,” he continues.
Thwart the predictions
Even if the doctors are not able to confirm that he will regain all of his motor skills, the 30-year-old stresses, however, that he has made a lot of progress since the incident.
He is now able to walk and play sports, which pushes him to look forward. The company he worked for offered him a position as an estimator, because it will now be impossible for him to stay in the sun for very long.
Photo from Olivier Marchand’s Facebook
Olivier Marchand, a few months before the tragic event which almost cost him his life.
“In terms of recovery, I thwart the predictions. I’m more advanced than I should be, but that’s not proof of everything, ”says Mr. Marchand, thanking his ex-spouse, his family and his specialists for the support over the past year.
Photo provided by Olivier Marchand
Olivier Marchand’s hands were particularly affected by the flames.
A tragedy that destroyed lives
- September 20, 2021 at 7:30 a.m.
- Lumber factory and dryers in Beauce
- Three dead:
- Jean Lachance, 51 years old
- Martin Roy, 50 years old
- Mario Morin, 57 years old
- Five injured
- Five charges of criminal negligence causing bodily harm
- Three charges of criminal negligence causing death