A disused motel on Taschereau Boulevard in Longueuil, which had become a squat for homeless people, had to be demolished following a second fire in the space of a few months.
Authorities were called to the scene around 9 a.m. Sunday morning after a passerby reported a fire in the Oscar Motel building.
“Firefighters tried to bring the fire under control, but given the damage that had been caused by the flames, they had no choice but to call in heavy machinery to stabilize the structure of the building and it therefore had to be knocked down,” explained a spokesperson for the Longueuil agglomeration police department, Ghislain Vallières.
Thanks to testimonies collected by the police from people who were on the scene when the fire broke out, a person was arrested in connection with this incident. She was still being questioned by investigators on Sunday afternoon.
This is the second fire to affect the Motel Oscar in the space of a few months, the first having occurred last January. The place is believed to be a squat for some homeless people, but no one was hurt in Sunday’s fire.