(Montreal) A few dozen firefighters were fighting a major fire Friday morning that destroyed cars and then attacked a commercial building at the end of the night in the southwest of Montreal.
Posted at 7:36
Updated at 9:08 a.m.
The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) reported no injuries at the start of the morning.
The authorities were alerted around 4:15 a.m. by a call to the 911 emergency telephone exchange which reported that the fire was ravaging automobiles on Pacific Avenue, near the intersection of Highway 20, in the borough of China. The fire then spread to the building located in a commercial and industrial area.
While fighting the flames, firefighters from the Montreal Fire Department (SSIM) found elements suggesting that the fire was the work of a criminal hand.
Investigators from the SPVM arson squad will therefore be called upon to shed light on the causes of the incident starting later today.
Despite the proximity of the blaze to Highway 20 and an access ramp to the Honoré-Mercier Bridge, traffic did not seem to be disturbed at daybreak by the operations of the firefighters and the police.
This fire is part of a long series of such incidents to have occurred in recent weeks in Montreal. The most recent occurred the day before, Thursday, when a dozen cars were damaged by fire in an industrial sector of the borough of Saint-Laurent.