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The opposition at Montreal city hall is pushing for a public inquiry to be formally requested following Friday’s deadly Old Montreal fire.
In a motion to be presented at an Oct. 21 council meeting, Ensemble Montréal notes an inquiry is of public interest “to clarify the circumstances surrounding the deaths, prevent future incidents and ensure the safety of the population” after a mother and her seven-year-old daughter died in the fire in a century-old building at Notre-Dame and Bonsecours Sts.
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The fire occurred about a year and a half after an eerily similar one broke out in an Old Montreal building owned by the same man. The March 2023 fire — at the coroner of Place D’Youville and Du Port St. — killed seven people and injured nine.
On Saturday afternoon, Quebec Public Security Minister François Bonnardel said he intends to ask the coroner’s office to combine an investigation into Friday’s fire with its investigation into the 2023 fire — but an official request has yet to be made, the opposition said.
That’s why the motion is calling on the city to make an official request to Bonnardel.
The motion mentions that the Montreal fire department issued a formal non-compliance notice to building owner Émile Benamor over a lack of fire alarms and smoke detectors at the Notre-Dame St. property in 2023 — which “would have been adjusted in 2024,” but that testimonies from survivors contradict some of the information relayed by authorities following the fire on Friday.
The public coroner’s inquiry into the 2023 fire has been put on hold pending the conclusion of a criminal investigation.
The families of those victims have been waiting for answers ever since. They called on authorities to ensure no such tragedy reoccurs after reports showed Benamor’s buildings were the subject of fire safety code violations for decades before the 2023 fire broke out.
“This recent tragedy is extremely tough to process for all of us, especially after clearly stating 18 months ago that we needed accountability and deterrence against something like this reoccurring,” said Randy Sears, whose son, Nathan, had been renting an Airbnb unit in the Place D’Youville building when the fire occurred. “And now this happens; as close to a carbon copy as one could ever imagine. As we were whisked back to the fire that took our son, it breaks our hearts to imagine the grief being experienced by the family of the deceased mother and her seven-year-old daughter.”
This story will be updated.
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