“People must feel bad”: the father of one of the victims of a fire in Old Montreal in 2023 deplores the inaction to avoid such a tragedy again

The father of one of the seven people who died in the major fire in the Old Port in March 2023 deplores that nothing was done to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.

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“What strikes me is really the incompetence of the people in place, who took this lightly. “It’s exactly the same thing that happened, it’s unacceptable,” protests Louis-Philippe Lacroix, Charlie Lacroix’s father.

On March 16, 2023, her daughter was in an apartment rented on the Airbnb platform when a violent fire broke out in the heritage building on Place d’Youville.

The 18-year-old young woman called 911 twice before dying in the dead-end accommodation in which she was a prisoner.

During the night of Friday, another fire broke out not far away, in a building on rue Notre-Dame Est. Two people lost their lives, one is between life and death and two were injured.

The owner of the building is Emile Benamor, the same individual who owned the building in which Charlie Lacroix and six other people died a year and a half ago.

A mission

“When my daughter died, I embarked on a mission to lobby so that it wouldn’t happen again. And there, the first thing that strikes me is that all the people involved didn’t understand anything,” complains Louis-Philippe Lacroix.

“I’m really shakebut I’m convinced that people right now are even more so than me. There must be people who feel like shit knowing that they could have done something more,” adds Mr. Lacroix.

He did not want to point the finger at any individual or instance in particular. According to him, those affected “know it and feel bad”.

Above all, he says he has a thought for the loved ones of the new victims, who will have to experience painful moments before getting answers.

Even though at the time he quickly understood that his daughter was probably among the victims, Mr. Lacroix and his relatives had to wait 12 days before having official confirmation.

“Waiting to know if it’s your child or not hurts. And there, we have the impression of living a copy and paste. It will surely take time before the firefighters can access the place, know who was there, identify the bodies,” he laments.

Mr. Lacroix and his family filed a $1.5 million lawsuit last year against the City of Montreal, the owner of the building as well as an alleged operator of illegal Airbnb accommodations.

– With Erika Aubin and Camille Payant