A major fire devastates a building in Old Montreal, at least two dead

Two people died and two others were injured, according to Montreal police, in the fire which heavily damaged a building on Notre-Dame Street, in Old Montreal, during the night from Thursday to Friday. The two deceased people were French nationals, a mother and her 7-year-old daughter, according to our information.

Police confirmed they pulled two bodies from the rubble on Friday evening. Other bodies are still believed to be in the charred debris of this arson fire. One of the injured people was taken to hospital in critical condition.

Deaths are expected, but unfortunately, we are unable to confirm their number or identity at this time.

At a press conference Friday afternoon, an inspector from the Montreal City Police Service (SPVM), David Shane, did not confirm any loss of life, emphasizing however that it is necessary expect deaths as the investigation into the rubble progresses.

The search continued actively on Friday evening, according to Inspector Shane, in order to determine exactly the number of people who were present in the building when the fire broke out.

The investigation was handled by the major crimes section, which works closely with the arson module of the SPVM. A special investigation structure called FILET 4 was dispatched to the scene. This measure only applies in circumstances that require extraordinary investigative resources, Inspector Shane said. This structure brings together elements of the fire department, the police, the coroner and the forensic science laboratory.

Due to the scale of the blaze, firefighters were only able to begin in the early afternoon to search the rubble of the building which housed a restaurant on the ground floor and at least 19 rental rooms. short-term on the floors.

It will take several days for investigators to search the rubble, police warn.

The thread of events

According to our information, the flames broke out around 2:39 a.m. on the ground floor of the building. The blaze would have quickly spread in this old three-story building located at the corner of Bonsecours and Notre-Dame Est streets.

According to images obtained from a surveillance camera, a man entered the building around 2:33 a.m.

Thomas Sawer, a young German tourist who had only been in Canada for a week, said he fled the building at full speed.

The smoke was already starting to spread… I saw a woman in pajamas, she told me that there was a fire in the kitchen, and when we looked, there was an explosion and the fire broke out. We all started runninghe told CBC News.

A woman who was in the neighboring building said she heard a loud boom shortly before people came knocking on his door to tell him to leave immediately. Everything happened very quickly… When we arrived in the street, the building was in flamessaid this woman wrapped in a Red Cross blanket.

Indiana native Clayton Anderson was staying at a nearby Airbnb and saw the building in flames when he returned home last night.

Honestly, it was terrifying. […] We were afraid, from the place where we were staying, that it would spread through the roof with the wind. It was really sad to see people fleeing this place.

The blaze in this historic district of the city required the triggering of a general alert and the mobilization of more than 150 firefighters. About two and a half hours after the fire started, part of the internal structure collapsed.

Around thirty people, clients of the building and neighbors, were evacuated and taken care of by the Red Cross.

400-406, rue Notre-Dame Est is located in a protected zone of Old Montreal under the Cultural Heritage Act. The building dates from the 19th century.

According to the Directory of Cultural Heritage of Quebec, this gray stone building with a flat roof was built in 1862-1863 by Alexandre-Maurice Delisle, a businessman who was also a member of parliament.

In more than 150 years of existence, the building has notably hosted grocers, an innkeeper, merchants and artists. It also housed the offices of the Héritage Montréal organization in the 1980s.

The same owner as the burned building on Place d’Youville

According to the land roll of the City of Montreal, the owner of the building is Émile Benamor, also owner of the William-Watson-Ogilvie building, on Place d’Youville, where seven people were killed and nine others people were injured in an arson attack on March 16, 2023.

This historic building housed several apartments rented on Airbnb, where irregularities had been noted in the past.

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According to a suit for negligence filed by families of the victims against the owner Émile Benamor, against Tariq Hasan – who sublet the units on the Internet – and against the City of Montreal, the building should have been condemned due to numerous irregularities which had been observed in the past. Several victims died trapped in their rooms, unable to escape the building.

The building should also have been removed from short-term rental Internet platforms, the families believe, since this type of rental was prohibited in this area, according to City of Montreal regulations.

Although a suspect was identified by police officers SPVMno one has yet been brought to justice for starting this arson.

The mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, said she was sorry to see history repeating itself with the same owner more than a year after the fire at Place d’Youville.

This is a situation that we find absolutely deplorable. We would never want this kind of situation to happen twice in two years.she declared at a press briefing Friday afternoon.

She refused to hear questions from journalists on site.

If Friday’s event has similarities with that of March 2023, the difference this time is all the work that has been done by the City of Montreal Fire Department in terms of complianceunderlined Ms. Plante.

The Prime Minister of Quebec, François Legault, published this message on the social network X: My thoughts are with the victims of the major fire in Old Montrealhe wrote among other things.

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With information from Jérôme Labbé