After the fatal fire in Old Montreal | The fire department tightens the screws on delinquent owners

Since the death of seven people in the fire that destroyed a heritage building in Old Montreal last March, the Fire Safety Service claims to be more severe towards delinquent owners, in addition to carrying out more numerous and better targeted inspections.

In addition, the City of Montreal will announce in its 2024 budget the funds necessary for the hiring of 33 new prevention agents, with the aim of improving the effectiveness of its squad, we learned. The Press.

“We are seeing more non-compliance, and that confirms to us that we are on the right track because we are focusing on the most problematic buildings,” explained the head of the Montreal Fire Safety Service (SIM), Richard Liebmann, Tuesday, after a presentation before the city’s Public Safety Commission.

Inspectors have toughened their tone towards owners of unsafe buildings, sending them formal notices to carry out the required work, even though such measures had not been used for several years towards offenders. also notes Mr. Liebmann.

Reports of infringement

The SIM has been in the hot seat since the tragedy in Old Montreal. The investigation revealed that the fire was started deliberately, making it a murder case. But the owner of the building reduced to ashes had received several notices of violation over the last 14 years for not having respected all the measures allowing the safe evacuation of the premises. It is not clear whether any corrections were made following SIM interventions.

On the night of March 16, 22 people were inside the heritage building on Place d’Youville. Six escaped the flames unharmed, nine were injured and seven died, some of whom had rented accommodation through the Airbnb platform.

The assessment of the actions undertaken by the SIM since this event, presented before the Public Security Commission, had been requested in municipal council by the opposition, which however remained unsatisfied.

Since the start of 2023, the SIM has carried out 5,752 inspections, compared to 4,531 during the same period in 2022, according to data revealed by Richard Liebmann early this evening.

Last April, the SIM launched Operation Vulcain, aiming to inspect buildings built before 1946, first in the Ville-Marie district, which includes Old Montreal, then throughout the island of Montreal. This operation made it possible to inspect 460 buildings, detect 2042 non-compliances and send 13 formal notices to owners so that they can carry out corrective measures.

In three cases, the owners have already complied with the requests, and actions have been taken in the other ten cases to resolve the problems highlighted.

Beyond fines

“We made an observation of what was not working before. We carried out inspections, but we did not necessarily have a return to compliance as desired. With the legal affairs department, we found tools to demand a return to compliance, rather than just issuing fines and tickets,” underlines the fire chief, in an interview with The Press.

“The delays were too long before. If it takes 18 months to have compliant emergency exits, that is far too long. What we want is to inform the owner promptly, we want to have his commitment, support him, and have a rapid return to compliance,” adds the deputy director, Chantal Bibeau.

According to Alan DeSousa, mayor of the borough of Saint-Laurent and member of the opposition, the results presented by the SIM lacked clarity, in a context where inspections have been in constant decline since 2017 and the tragedy of March 16 should have raised a red flag.

“It’s a question of life and death,” he lamented. The inspections that have been carried out, are they just a drop in the river? Will it take 20 years to inspect all heritage buildings? »