[VIDÉO] Old Montreal fire: an unconscious man saved at the last minute by firefighters

Firefighters from the Montreal Fire Safety Service (SIM) saved the life at the last minute of an unconscious man trapped in Friday’s deadly arson fire in Old Montreal. The film-worthy scene was captured and shared on social media.

• Also read: Old Montreal fire: 2 French victims identified

• Also read: Here’s what we know the day after the fatal fire in Old Montreal

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In videos posted on Instagram, we can first see impressive flames and large quantities of smoke emanating from the windows of the building ravaged by the fire at the corner of Notre-Dame Est and Bonsecours streets.

The videos, shared in ephemeral publications by the account of real estate broker Martin Rouleau, then show firefighters accessing via a ladder a window on the second floor at the southwest end of the building which housed a youth hostel, before extract an unconscious man.

This is the person who was yesterday in critical condition among the results drawn up yesterday by the QMI Agency. According to our information, the man, aged around 40, was however out of danger on Saturday and was due to be released from hospital.

Two other people were not as lucky and tragically lost their lives. It would be a little girl and her mother, from France.

He came close to death

Still according to our sources, the first firefighters to arrive on the scene quickly noticed that a person was trapped behind this window since they were banging violently against it.

A first firefighter then climbed up using a portable ladder to help him. When he arrived at the top, the noise had stopped; the victim had lost consciousness, probably from breathing too much smoke.

It was so thick that the firefighter had to feel the ground and feel that he was touching a body before trying to recover it.

Reinforcements then had to arrive quickly via the aerial ladder to lower the unconscious man, to prevent the first firefighter coming to his aid from breathing too much smoke himself.

A few more minutes would certainly have been enough for the man not to survive the fire, according to our information. “All the stars were aligned for this guy to save his life,” said a source knowledgeable about the intervention.

Martin Guilbault, head of division of the SIM, congratulated the firefighters involved in this rescue in a press scrum on Saturday.

«[Ils] really made the difference that night. This is exactly what we exist for,” he reacted, emphasizing their “colossal and precise work”.

“Safe” building, according to the City

The Journal alerted the City of Montreal in 2023 regarding the dangerousness of this youth hostel which then rented rooms without windows or sprinklers.

“The SIM. announced yesterday [vendredi] that in the last year, there were inspections, there were non-compliances which were corrected with formal notices. The SIM. judged yesterday that the building was safe,” said Alain Vaillancout, head of public security for the City of Montreal, on Saturday.

It belongs to lawyer Émile Haim Benamor, who also owned the three-story building on Place d’Youville which was destroyed by another arson which killed seven people in March 2023.

-With Frédérique Giguère