S.O.S. (save our skunk)

>> Grim Skunk's Joe Evil survived a devastating apartment fire--but will you?

By RUPERT BOTTENBERG

The guys in Montreal prog-core band Grim Skunk are no strangers to tragedy. A few years back, they lost their longtime manager Simon Galipeault, one of the best in the business, in an ugly skateboarding accident. Bad news almost knocked a second time last weekend. Around 5 a.m. of Saturday, Nov. 25, keyboardist Joe Evil awoke to find his Mont-Royal street apartment on fire.

Speaking from his hospital bed in the burn ward of Hôpital Hôtel-Dieu, Joe says he's all right now. "I've got second-degree burns on my arms, up to my elbows. I'm doing okay, but I'll be here another two weeks."

There's relief in his voice, but glumness too, a result of his sudden homelessness and the loss of many of his belongings--clothes, furniture, even musical instruments.

"Stuff in my bedroom seems to be okay--I'll have to test out the instruments to see if they still work right--but I lost a lot of stuff in the rest of the apartment. Some things below waist height were spared, but anything on a table or higher was melted."

The place was already engulfed in flames when he and his roommate Jerome Couture awoke. Unable to make it out the backdoor in time, Joe passed out on the kitchen floor, thinking his number was up--and came to on the sidewalk outside.

Truck 526 to the rescue

Now that he's out of harm's way, there's some black humour to be found in a Grim Skunk member nearly buying it from smoke inhalation. But let's not forget, Evil and his roommate Jerome are still with us today, shook up and well-toasted, entirely because the firemen of Station 26 at the corner of des Erables and Mont-Royal, and particularly the boys of truck number 526, responded quickly enough to the alarm. Captain Jean Langlois, Eric Provost, Gaétan Chapados and Dany Roy risked their lives going in, crawling on all fours to find the two.

What's come to the surface as a result of this fire is that others may not be so lucky if City Hall has its way. Patrick Mathieu of Grim Skunk Productions explains: "When I called the firemen to thank them--and nobody ever thanks them, they said--they told me that truck number 526 might be taken out of service to cut costs. That truck made all the difference--minutes, minutes! Are we all supposed to die in our apartments to save a couple of dollars?"

No, what we're supposed to do is one of two things. Either write to Mayor Bourque at City Hall, or perhaps more effectively, send a fax expressing dismay (politely, mind you) to M. Alain Michaud, director of Montreal's firefighting services. The fax number is 872-8572, and the truck on the chopping block is, once again, number 526.

Joe says not to sweat the get-well-soon e-mails (he can't check them, anyway). There's already talk of a passing of the hat, maybe even a benefit show or something, but for the moment let's just be happy he's still here. "Evil" spelled backwards, after all, is "live."

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