United in death, Ottawa explosion victims all stood out in life

They were the sort of folks who escaped to the Ottawa Valley on the weekend, danced to cheesy pop songs with their nieces, channeledyears of expertise into helping withtheir kids'homework.

Some were just entering the workforce. Others were approaching retirement. Most were men, but not all.

It's true that the six people killed in the Jan. 13 explosion and fire at the south Ottawaheadquarters ofEastwayTank, Pump & Meter Ltd., a local tanker truck manufacturer, will forever be united by the tragiccircumstances of their deaths.

But in their lives, they were individualsthrough and through, each bringing their own experiences to their difficult, dangerous jobs.

• The Eastway Tank explosionhow it all happened

Kayla Ferguson, 26, was the sole woman among the victims. She'd only been at Eastway since 2020, her cousin said, but was excited to get a job there as a welderafter graduating from college.

On the opposite end of his careerwas 57-year-old Rick Bastien, who trained Ferguson after she started andwas thefirst victim whose identity CBC News confirmed.

A former Eastway supervisor and skilled craftsman, Bastien was nearing retirement when he died.

The grandfather of two had just put the finishing touches on a home in the Outoauaisregion of Quebec where he and his wife, Louise, were planning to enjoy their twilight years. As Louise wrote on his Facebook page, "we had 10 wonderful years together and believed we had at least 30+ more to come."

Several, like low-voltage electrician Danny Beale a native of Deep River, Ont., with a deep and abiding love of the outdoors grew up in the region. He spent the weekend before his death ice fishing with his father, Mike, at the family's hunting campnear Calabogie, Ont., just west of Ottawa.

Others, however, made great journeys before arriving at Eastway: Etienne Mabiala, described by coworkers and family asa shy but friendly engineer,was born in the Republic of Congo and worked on airplanes in Senegal for Air Afriquebeforeimmigrating to Ottawa.

Pride in the work

Despite their differences, the victims did have certain things in common: they took pride in what they did, and loved and were loved by those around them.

Plant manager Russell McLellan was a "gentle giant" whose teenage daughter was his "raison d'tre," his friend Tom Burant recalled.

The 43-year-old was one of the hardest working men he'd ever known, Burant said. Helovedtoiling forEastway and owner Neil Greeneand never expressed any fearabout being surrounded by volatilefuels and chemicals.

Ferguson worked hard too just as hard as any man at Eastway, her cousin Maria said. In her off-hours, though, she wasbeloved "Auntie K" to her nieces and goddaughters and served, as Maria put it, as the family's "rock."

Service technician Matt Kearney, who survived the initial blast but succumbed the next day in hospital, had both a "relentless regard for the well-being and safety of others" and "unwavering love and dedication to his family and friends," according to a family statement.

As for Mabiala, he was a "genius" so adept at engineering that he didn't need manuals to do his work, his daughters Celeste and Darlene told CBC.But he was also a family man who'd call his wife every lunch hour and would drive his kids from store to store in search of a sold-out toy.

They weren't just employees. They were, as Bastien's son Josh put it, friends and "good people."

Investigations underway

On Wednesday, nearly one week after the fatal blast, crews finally recovered the remains of five people their identities still not officially confirmedfrom the still hazardousscene.

Now, the focus will shift to figuring out how such a devastating disaster could have tornthrough the Merivale Road truck plantinthe first place and who, if anyone, bears responsibility. The long list of investigating agenciesincludes the Ottawa Police Service's arson unit, the Ontario fire marshal, the Ministry of Labour and the provincial fuel safety regulator.

• Growing tangle of agencies looking into fatal Eastwayexplosion

And that's where, perhaps, one more difference will now manifest: in the attitudes and expectationsthe victims' loved ones take toward the complex, overlapping investigations.

WATCH | Friends, family speakabout loved ones killed in the Eastway disaster:

Father, son, friend, cousin: The victims of the Eastway Tank explosion

3 years ago

Duration 2:33

Friends and family members spoke to CBC News about loved ones who were killed in the Jan. 13 explosion and fire at Eastway Tank, Pump and Meter Ltd.

For Josh Bastien, who previously worked at Eastway alongside his father and is among the former workers who havealleged a history of safety lapses at the Ottawa plant, the scrutinywill be intensely personal.

"My dad rang alarm bells for a long time and he's gone now, and I feel like he would want the truth told finally," he told CBCthis week. "His death, it has to mean something. Because this can't keep happening."

(Eastway, for their part, has calledthe allegationsby Bastien and two other former employees "unfounded," while also acknowledging in a statement that people are feeling"immense pain, sadness and anger.")

Other family membershave hinted ata more philosophical approachalthough it's possible, as details emerge about the blast's circumstances, that those feelings may change.

"If there was an error made, people make errors," said Jean Schade, Danny Beale's mother,not long after thefamily made theirown pilgrimage to the Eastway site and left flowers and photos of theirson at the gate.

"The only reason I would care [for an investigation] is to help others, but not for me moving on," she said. "It doesn't bring Danny back."