Natashquan firefighters drive 50 km to douse flames in Kegaska on Lower North Shore

People in the isolatedcommunity of Kegaska on Quebec's LowerNorth Shore say without the help of their nearest neighbours50 kilometres away, the outcome ofa house fireon Monday evening could have been much worse.

Firefighters from Natashquanwere able to reach Kegaska within 40 minutes of getting the alert a feat which would have been impossible before the extension of Highway 138 three years ago.

• New road connects Kegaska to provincial road network

"My power went out, so I walked outside, and I saw the house next door was totally ablaze", said Isabelle Trudel, who livesinKegaska, a communityof 120 people locatedabout425 kilometres east ofSept-les.

Volunteers tried pumping salt water

Trudel said after makingsurethefour employees from the Canadian Coast Guard living in the househad managed to getout safely,she called 9-1-1.

The emergency service dispatched afire crew from Natashquan,50 kilometres weston Highway138.

"While we were waiting, we tried putting out the fire with the pumps and hoses we have. But wedon't have fire hydrants, and there isn't a lot of water pressure in town," Trudel said.

Volunteers started pumping salt water from the St.Lawrence River, but they ran intoproblems becausethe tide was out, she explained.

'My house could have been next'

The chief of the Natashquan Fire Department, Dany Malek,said it took about 40 minutes to reach Kegaska after his team received the phone call.

"When we arrived half the house was gone," Malek said.

The crew was able to get the fire under control and prevent the flames from jumping onto neighbouring buildings, including Trudel'shome.

"Thewalls were getting really hot. It was very windy, and the flames were getting higher. If they hadn't been there, my house would probably not be standing today," said Trudel.

Road access since 2013

The village of Kegaskahas only been connected to the rest of the Lower North Shore since a long-promised extension of Highway 138 was completed in 2013.

"The road made a difference for us last night," saidDarleneRowsell-Roberts, themunicipality's administrator.

"If they hadn't been able to get in with their fire-fighting equipment ...I don't even want to think about it," she said.

The road made the difference for us last night.- Darlene Rowsell-Roberts, municipal administrator

Rowsell-Robertsconfirmed Kegaska does not have afire hydrant system, asis the case for several other small, isolated, mainly anglophone communitiesthat make up the municipality ofCte-Nord-du-Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent.

The municipality ofCte-Nord-du-Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent, the main part ofwhichstretches along the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence between the Natashquan and Big Mecatina rivers,includes, among others, the villages ofChevery,Harrington Harbour,Kegaska, La RomaineandTte--la-Baleine.

Rowsell-Roberts said the municipality is currently planning to renovate its water line, and it willask the Quebec government to include afire hydrantin theseplans.

"We have to recognize how people pulled together with the minimal equipment they had, to do what they did," she said.