Residents of southwest Quebec and eastern Ontario are rallying to the cause of an eight-year-old boy who lost his entire family in a fire last week.
Mathis Gagnon was the only member of his family of five to survive the fire that broke out in their apartment in the town of Les Coteaux two days before Christmas.
His father, Patrick Gagnon, 37, his mother, Karine Desrochers-Gauthier, 32, his sister, Lorie, 4, and his brother, Felix, 2, perished.
This weekend firefighters with the Regie Intermunicipale d’incendie du Lac Saint-Francois began a fund-raising campaign for Mathis, erecting a sign that said “Give generously to Mathis” and collecting donations on the town’s main street.
They raised more than $40,000.
More fundraisers are planned, and firemen hope to set up a website for online donations. Beginning next Monday, citizens will be able to make donations at Les Coteaux’s town hall.
“Our town is in mourning,” says Les Coteaux Mayor Denise Godin-Dostie. “Everyone here knows either a parent, a grandparent, a great-grandparent or an aunt of little Mathis.”
Extended family members have said Ms. Desrocher-Gauthier’s sister is expected to take Mathis in and raise him.
Officials are still trying to determine the cause of the blaze. When firemen arrived they did not see any smoke detectors.
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