(Quebec) A woman lost her life in a fire in Quebec, in the Neufchâtel sector.
Emergency services were notified by passers-by who called 911 early Sunday morning, at 2:32 a.m., regarding a fire in the basement of a semi-detached house on Johnny-Parent Boulevard.
A car was in the parking lot, leading people to believe that a person was possibly inside.
“An unconscious person was evacuated by the firefighters and resuscitation maneuvers were carried out on them,” confirmed Alexandre Lajoie, spokesperson for the Quebec Fire Protection Service (SPCIQ).
“The victim was treated by paramedics and he was pronounced dead on the spot,” he said.
The investigation was transferred to the Quebec City Police Service (SPVQ), which will have to examine the possibility of arson.
A security perimeter has been erected. Investigators and forensic identification technicians from the SPVQ were called to the scene to establish the circumstances leading to the death, with the collaboration of investigators at the Fire Station.
Around fifty firefighters from the Quebec Fire Protection Service (SPCIQ) were deployed and the intervention ended about an hour later.
A second fire in an apartment building
A three-story apartment building was engulfed in flames Sunday morning in Quebec.
The firefighters were alerted around 5:30 a.m. and around fifty firefighters were called to intervene at this location on Cartier Avenue, near the Plains of Abraham.
The fire started on a balcony at the rear of the building.
Around ten people were evacuated, said Alexandre Lajoie, spokesperson for the Quebec Fire Protection Service (SPCIQ).
Red Cross employees and a Capital Transport Network (RTC) bus were sent to the scene to help the victims and keep them warm in freezing weather.
The building suffered significant damage, but no one was injured.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known, but there was nothing to suggest it was a suspicious fire.
The Quebec City Fire Commissioner will investigate.