The small community of L’Isle-Verte, in eastern Quebec is still reeling today as searchers continue to look for the approximately 30 senior citizens missing after an early Thursday morning fire that broke out at a center there.

The fire in the 52-unit home for the elderly broke out just after midnight on Thursday morning in the community of 1,500 280 miles to the northeast of Montreal. Many of the elderly housed there suffered from diabilities and many were not mobile and needed walkers and wheelchairs to get around.

Firefighters arrived to battle the blaze in the bitter cold at approximately 12:30 am. It had only taken firefighters eight minutes to reach the fire, but already the flames were out of control. Firefighters and others at the blaze could hear the “blood-curdling screams” inside the building as the fire intensified, and managed to conduct a partial evacuation of the building to rescue about 20 of the victims. But, because of of the intense heat of the rapidly growing fire, the majority of those in the building, could not be reached. By 1 am, the building was totally engulfed in flames.

The cold weather, with temperatures down to -7F, hampered the efforts of the firefighters, causing repeated problems with the equipment, but firefighters continued their fight for the next five hours. As dawn broke on Thursday morning, firefighters finally got the fire under control. First light found the building still smoldering, collapsed and encased in a thick layer of ice from the firefighting efforts.

The 20 people rescued from the blaze were all from the newer section of the building, that section was separated from the older part of the building by a firewall. That older section, had had fire and smoke alarms, but only a partial sprinkler system, according to government officials.

Five people have been confirmed dead in the blaze, investigators hope that many of the still missing were away with relatives, but the death toll is expected to rise considerably a workers toil to uncover the wreckage today.