Two boys 10, burned while sniffing gas

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

The boys were huffing cooking-stove gas with four other boys in a wooden storage crate on July 17, when the explosion occurred.

Four boys, ages 10 to 13, had met in the afternoon in the box, known as a gathering place where teens and adults often inhale the deadly fumes for a cheap high.

Corp. Daniel Stevens of the Kativik Regional Police Force said the explosion occurred when one of the boys lit a cigarette.

After trying to put the fire out, the older boys ran to the hospital, only metres away from their hideaway, and were treated for minor burns on their hands. The younger boys fared worse, and had to be flown immediately to Montreal General Hospital to be treated for severe burns.

“I just thank God it happened right near the hospital so it didn’t take [more] time to get medical attention,” Stevens said. “In POV, [gas huffing] isn’t one of our major problems.

“We hope this isn’t the start of a trend.”

Chief nurse Fernand Roy at the Inuulitsivik hospital in Puvirnituq said gas sniffing cases are always serious because of the potential nerve and brain damage caused by inhaling fumes. Huffing cases can also lead to heart attacks, or ultimately death.

Authorities were particularily worried about this case because it could have been much worse.

“At first we thought this happened outside in the open air. There it wasn’t as troubling,” Roy said in an interview in French. “But then we found out it was in a closed space, with more significant fumes involved.”

“It could have been much more dramatic.”

Roy said the boys were likely still sniffing the gas when the explosion happened, because one boy actually breathed in the flames, potentially scorching his lungs.

Roy, who saw adults die from huffing gas in Umiujaq 12 years ago, suggests that parents aren’t taking their children’s sniffing habits seriously.

“This comes from the social conditions,” Roy said. “These are things that are well known, but not a lot is done. It seems there’s nothing being done to stop it. When I was in Umiujaq, people died from sniffing gas.”

Philippe Jodouin, one of two child psychologist for the Hudson Bay coast communities in Nunavik, said the most recent case in Puvirnituq particularly shocked him because of how young the children are.

He said curiousity leads children to sniff gas. But in Puvirnituq, kids also pick up the habit because they have nothing else to do.

Jodouin said young people turn to smoking, drinking and sniffing because the community lacks summer activities for school children.

Moreover, parents aren’t taking care of their children, in part because the adults have their own substance abuse problems, Jodouin said.

“It’s from a flagrant lack of supervision of children,” Jodouin said in an interview in French. “Children are floating through the streets like throw-away garbage.”

“With kids this young, we’re not talking about drug addicts. We’re talking about kids with nothing to do, who are in dangerous situations.”

Jodouin suggested that the plight of children in Puvirnituq rests, in part, with the Government of Quebec because most other communities in the province provide summer camps and activities for local youth.

Montreal General Hospital officials said on Wednesday that the two 10-year-old boys burnt in the blast were released with second-degree burns. Both are staying in Nunavik House in Montreal, while one awaits possible plastic surgery.