A major fire broke out in a building in Old Montreal early Friday morning, killing two people and critically injuring one other, according to Radio-Canada.
Montreal police say the fire, which started around 2 a.m. in a building at the corner of Notre-Dame and Bonsecours streets, is suspicious in nature.
The fire continued to smoulder into the afternoon, completely destroying the three-storey, 100-year-old building which housed a restaurant on the main floor and a hostel above.
At a news conference Friday afternoon, police said they could not confirm the number of deaths as investigators don’t yet have access to the scene.
“Some fatalities are unfortunately expected,” said Montreal police Insp. David Shane, adding police could also not yet confirm the number of people inside the building at the time of the fire.
About 125 firefighters and 50 trucks were on the scene, near the corner of Notre-Dame and Bonsecours streets. The fire has left two people dead and one in critical condition, according to Radio-Canada.
The blaze broke out on the main floor of the building and the flames quickly spread, triggering a five-alarm fire. About 125 firefighters and 50 trucks worked to extinguish the flames.
Shane said firefighters are working to secure the building so that searches can be conducted through the rubble “in order to find any potential victims and evidence.”
Thomas Sawer, a tourist from Germany, was staying in the hostel for just one night when he was jolted awake by the sounds of the building’s fire alarms.
He said smoke was already circulating in the building as he made his way out.
“I thought, ‘This can’t be a drill, this has to be real so I went down, but I don’t know if I felt safe, honestly,” he told CBC News in an interview.
Sawer said his room was small, had no windows and barely any furniture. “I felt like I’m in a shoebox, honestly.”
He said he feels lucky he made it out when he did, because once on the street, he describes seeing “an explosion” in the building, which is when the flames erupted.
Crammed, no windows, say hostel reviewers
Municipal tax records show the owner of the building is Émile-Haim Benamor, who also owned the building on Place D’Youville in Old Montreal where seven people died in a fire in March 2023. The restaurant located on the main floor is owned by another person.
Property records show that the building was constructed in 1923. Those records also show that in 2021, Benamor requested a $10,000 permit to build a “20-room hotel” there.
A hostel called Le 402 is located on the second and third floors of the building. Photos of the hostel on booking websites show exposed brick walls, a shared lounge and rooms with a city view.
Some comments, however, describe the accommodations as crammed and rundown. Multiple reviewers also report bedrooms without windows or windows that wouldn’t open.
Martin Guilbault, a division chief with the Montreal fire department, told reporters that fire inspectors had visited the building in the spring of 2023 and had found an absence of fire alarms and smoke detectors, but on a new visit in the spring of 2024, those issues had been fixed.
“The building was compliant, according to our information,” he said. However, he specified that inspectors had visited the address of the restaurant inside the building, but did not say if the inspection also included the hostel upstairs.
Guilbault said the fire department had no information to suggest there were bedrooms without windows inside the building.
CBC News reached out to Benamor’s lawyer on Friday morning. He declined to comment.
Paramedic service Urgences-santé said one man was taken to hospital with burns. Police later said the person was in critical condition. Two other people were treated for shock on the scene.
Approximately 40 people from an adjacent building were forced out and are being supported by the Red Cross.
Montreal police said last year that the March 2023 fire at the building on Place D’Youville was intentionally set. Inspectors had flagged a number of fire safety violations at that building, including a lack of smoke detectors and problems with its fire escape. The building hosted Airbnbs, which were illegal in the area.