By Justin Sadler , Doug Hempstead ,Ottawa Sun
Grieving students flooded back to Mother Teresa High School Thursday night, united in grief, when word spread their classmate Eric Leighton had died in hospital from injuries in an explosion in shop class earlier in the day.
Shortly after 8 p.m., they began arriving and numbered close to 150 at one point.
Those who lived nearby walked, others drove, while some — like Akshay Sharma was brought by his father.
Sharma was in the same class as Leighton.
“We were pretty good friends,” he said.
The two spent first-period construction class together Thursday. The explosion happened in second period.
“He meant a lot to us. He was very nice to everybody, always helpful and he always cheered everyone up. He was a very valued part of Mother Teresa high school.”
Students who arrived at the school Thursday night set up a makeshift memorial which included a Senators jersey, notes and flowers. The students gathered around it, hugging and crying and trying to comfort each other.
Leighton, 18, was helping build a barbecue out of a 55-gallon barrel and as the students cut into the steel cylinder just before 11 a.m., it exploded.
Leighton was knocked unconscious and left covered with debris, bleeding profusely from his mouth.
He was found without vital signs but paramedics resuscitated him enroute to hospital.
He clung to life all day Thursday but died around 8:30 p.m.
Fellow student James Armstrong was in another part of the shop when the blast occurred.
“We were making barbecues out of these barrels and there was an explosion,” he said.
“I didn’t see anything because I was behind a truck working on the tires. All I hear is just this huge explosion coming from the other room.”
Besides Leighton, eight people were injured. Four students suffered minor injuries and, along with a 33-year-old teacher, were all taken to hospital with “concussive” type injuries but they are all expected to recover.
The other three were treated on scene.
There were 16 students and one teacher in the classroom at the time.
Student Lauren O’Grady was just outside the shop when the blast occurred.
“There was a spark that came off and it ignited a giant oil barrel,” she said pointing to a green steel barrel used as a garbage can. “The impact from the barrel was so big that our friend was knocked unconscious.”
Ottawa police said that fumes from oil residue in the barrel ignited, causing the explosion.
It’s not clear how a barrel containing dangerously explosive vapours ended up in the school in the first place and why students were handling it.
Catholic board spokeswoman Mardi deKemp said she was unaware whether students brought in the barrels, or if they were school supplies.
Mother Teresa was evacuated after the blast and students walked to nearby Longfields-Davidson high school, where they were met by school buses at 1:15 p.m. to take them home.
The school board called in crisis counsellors and incident specialists to attend to students’ needs.
-- with files from Larissa Cahute
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