The family of a Grade 12 student killed in a freak accident at his Ottawa high school is speaking out about their loss, as authorities continue to investigate the explosion that led to his death.
Eric Leighton, 18, was fatally injured in the blast at Mother Teresa Catholic High School Thursday morning, after an empty oil drum exploded.
He was found without vital signs after the blast but had been revived by the time he reached hospital. He died of his injuries Thursday night, with his family by his side.
Now his parents and sister say they want to help honour Eric's memory by speaking publicly about what he was like.
Eric could always light up a room, they say, and was a promising hockey player who dreamed of making it to the big leagues.
He could "take an angry room and turn it into a happy room," said his father, Patrick. "His smile was a million bucks -- and that the way I want him remembered."
His mother, Sheri, said her son had "a passion to help people no matter who they were," and was willing "to do anything for anybody."
Eric's school is planning a memorial service to be held next week. Meanwhile strangers, family and friends have been posting condolences and eulogizing Eric on a Facebook page devoted to his memory. By Friday afternoon the page had registered more than 13,000 members.
Kaitlyn, Eric's sister, was two classrooms away in the school when the explosion occurred at around 10:40 a.m. Thursday.
"We heard a really big bang. My friends and me just kind of just looked at each other and laughed because we thought it was just desks falling or something," she recalled.
But as she walked out into the school hallway, students a few students pointed at her. She didn't need school staff to let her know her brother had been injured.
"I just had this gut feeling," she said. "All the kids looked at me, and I just knew."
After Eric's death was announced Thursday night, a crowd gathered outside the school. Friends there described him as a popular student who was just weeks away from graduation, and a promising athlete.
"Hockey was his life. That was who he was," said Rashi Patri, one of Eric's co-workers. "He was going to be in the NHL one day, I was sure of it."
Investigation underway
Ottawa Fire Services and Ottawa police are probing what went wrong, and are awaiting findings from the Fire Marshall's Office.
Gordon Butler of the Ottawa Catholic School Board said that his organization intends to conduct a subsequent investigation to determine whether its policies need to be changed.
They're hoping to determine who brought the barrel into the school and what instructions were given to the students, according to Julian Hanlon, the school board's director of education.
"We haven't had a chance to speak to the teacher himself. He was slightly injured and is obviously in a state of shock. He was taken to hospital and is off work for a few days. But obviously, we'll be speaking to the teacher and get to the bottom of this," Hanlon said.
The school board wants to know "whether there was an oversight here, thinking there wasn't hazardous waste" in the auto-shop class where the explosion happened.
It appears that at the time of the explosion, students were building barbecues and were sawing into an empty 55-gallon drum that had previously held peppermint oil. That toxic substance is combustible, and the saw may have caused a spark that ignited dangerous fumes.
Eric's father, Patrick, is anxious to hear more about why the blast occurred.
"Why would a school have a combustible material and kids working on it with sparks, tools, flames? Why was that even in the classroom?" he asked. "There was all kinds of precautions that could've been taken…. A kid lost his life because of carelessness."
The school was open Friday for regular classes while the police and fire investigation continued.
Butler said that a "crisis response team" that includes chaplains and psychologists was at the school to help students who are trying to come to terms with Eric's death.
Yesterday's blast in the auto shop sent other four students and a teacher to hospital. All five were treated for minor injuries and released.
Mother Teresa Catholic High School is located in the Ottawa suburb of Barrhaven, in a quiet residential area, and has 1,480 students and 130 staff.
With a report from CTV Ottawa's Catherine Lathem and John Hua, and files from The Canadian Press
