The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) announced on Saturday morning that at least six people were missing following the fire that ravaged a heritage building in Place d’Youville last Thursday.
According to our information, these people would have rented apartments in the building on Airbnb-type platforms.
The investigation was transferred to the SPVM’s arson division on Friday evening. “Information validated in the last hours from various sources allows us to believe that there may be victims inside the rubble”, informed in a press briefing on Saturday Martin Guilbault, head of division at the Fire Safety Service. of Montreal (SIM).
Half a dozen people have so far been identified, said SPVM commander Steve Belzil.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
SPVM Commander Steve Belzil (left) and SIM Division Chief Martin Guilbault.
A major fire ravaged a heritage building located on Place d’Youville in Old Montreal on Thursday. Initially, only one person, a 70-year-old woman, was missing.
The SPVM invites the families and friends of people who may have been in the building to contact 514 280-2222 or go to their local police station.
A fragile structure
Saturday morning, the structure of the devastated building exposes its shattered windows, and a charred interior. The SIM will continue to assist the SPVM in the rest of the investigation, assured Martin Guilbault.
Firefighters still cannot enter the scene of the blaze due to concerns about the building’s structure, he said. Specialists will establish a plan during the weekend to be able to move forward in a safe manner for all the stakeholders involved, indicated Mr. Guilbault.
An operation aimed at protecting the heritage structure of the building could also be attempted.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS
A firefighter was injured during the blaze because he received blood from a victim in the eye, said Mr. Guilbault. He had access to medical services.
The three seriously injured were transferred to a unit for severe burns in a hospital in the metropolis.
An undetermined cause
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, said Mr. Guilbault and Mr. Belzil. It is too early in the investigation to assess whether building code breaches may have caused the fire or contributed to the deaths of its residents.
Thursday, Mr. Guilbault had argued in a press briefing that “the smoke detectors in some of the dwellings were possibly defective”, which he did not reiterate on Saturday.
The neighborhood that had to be evacuated was able to return to their quarters. The buildings adjacent to the burned one were spared by the flames.
The lawyer Émile Benamor, owner of the heritage building destroyed by the flames, owns about fifteen buildings on the territory of Montreal, according to the Land Registry. Among his properties, several houses and multi-unit buildings.
In a report seen by The Pressthe SIM claims to have already intervened in another building belonging to Me Benamor, rue Notre-Dame, in Old Montreal. “The purpose of my intervention was to carry out an inspection following a complaint by a tenant of the presence of a clandestine rooming house”, says an inspector in an offense report dated 2021 and filed in Court municipal.
With information from Daniel Renaud and Mayssa Ferah, The Press