A former presbytery located near a primary school in Rimouski, in Bas-Saint-Laurent, could have been the target of a suspicious fire, the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) reported Thursday morning. The body of a man was found late this afternoon.
The police indicated that they had opened an investigation to shed light on the event.
Around fifty firefighters were called at 4 a.m. Thursday to go to the building located at the corner of Côté and Saint-Germain Est streets to fight the flames.
“We received a call for an explosion with flames on a building,” explained Jean-Sébastien Meunier, director of the Fire Safety Service of the City of Rimouski. Several callers called 911 to report the building was on fire […] There was widespread conflagration on all floors. It was a very large fire.”
The body of a man was discovered late in the afternoon, confirmed the SQ. His age and identity have not been revealed.
The building was not occupied at the time of the fire.
Screenshot TVA News
Classes scheduled to take place at the school were canceled for the day. A security perimeter was established in the area which was removed in the evening.
The fire is considered suspicious, but not necessarily criminal, as of this writing.
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