A volunteer firefighter is dead after a burning home collapsed late Monday night in Varennes, Que.

'It's very hard. I'll try to be strong for my colleagues. They have to be strong for us, too.'—Varennes fire chief Gilles Carle

Mathieu Émond, 26, died after being trapped in the basement of the home while fighting the fire, which started around 11:30 pm Monday night.  

Varennes fire chief Gilles Carle said the death has deeply shaken the small department.

"It's the first time I have to go through a thing like this," he told reporters hours after the fire. "It's very hard. I'll try to be strong for my colleagues. They have to be strong for us, too."

Émond, a fully-trained volunteer firefighter and new father, had two years experience and worked part-time for the Varennes force.

Firefighters leave the ruins of a Varennes house fire Tuesday where a volunteer fireman died.
(Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)

He was one of three firefighters called to the scene who entered the Sainte-Anne St. home and went into the basement where the fire is believed to have started.

When the flames intensified, firefighters were ordered to leave, said Richelieu-St-Laurent police chief Michel Lefebvre. "Two firefighters came out saying there was still one missing, that one of them was still inside," he told CBC's French-language service.

Émond's body was found in the rubble a few hours later and his remains were removed just before 9 a.m. ET Tuesday. 

Two residents in the home — a man and a woman — escaped with minor injuries.

Police and the coroner's office are investigating the fire to determine "the causes, circumstances, the equipment, whether it was all right, whether it failed" said police commander Louis Bruneau.

The investigation will likely take weeks, he said.

With files from the Canadian Press