A police investigation by the arson unit is being carried out following the fire which completely destroyed the house of sculptor Charles Daudelin, at the last hours of the year, on the night of December 29 and 30. The house, abandoned for a while, had just been classified by the State because of its heritage value.
“The file was transferred to the arson section of the SPVM [Service de police de la Ville de Montréal] “, confirmed the police media relations department. For now, the cause of the fire “remains undetermined.”
In 2020, this exceptional home was listed for sale for $2.6 million. It had since escaped at the last minute a demolition request from its owner, who wanted to erect new buildings on the site.
Classified by the State because of its cultural and historical importance after a series of twists and turns, the Charles-Daudelin house is a residence-workshop built from 1951. Several renowned architects worked there, including the brother of the former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. It sheltered the life of one of the most famous artists of Quebec in the 20th century.e century. Charles Daudelin considered it as part of his work.
Following the fire, the mayor of the municipality, Michel Gibson, deplored “a great loss for Kirkland”, adding that “it was a part of our heritage. » However, the City of Kirkland had not previously seen fit to cite this building for protection, as the Heritage Act authorizes it to do.
It is the report of a specialized inspector of the fire services which would have led in particular to the case being entrusted to the SPVM, we learned Duty. The case was initially closed without further action.
In 2022, the owner of the site asked the municipality for authorization to raze the site in order to reconstruct new buildings there. The City had, in a public notice of intent, indicated its desire to demolish this historic building located on Chemin Sainte-Marie in a former crop field which has now become a real estate complex.
It was repeated interventions by defenders of Quebec heritage which led the State to intervene to protect the places. The bad fate promised to this unique ensemble had aroused the indignation of several specialists, who had called for the preservation of the places.
On December 30, it took around forty firefighters from the City of Montreal approximately five hours to control the fire which had broken out the day before “around 11:35 p.m.” according to the Montreal police file.
Seals by Duty Following the fire, the firefighters did not initially see fit to forward the file to the police. An official spokesperson for the fire service initially stated that although “the cause of the fire [soit] unknown”, nothing yet indicated “that it was a fire of an arson nature. » A new examination of the file led the firefighters to transfer the file to their police colleagues.
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