Sean Mollitt says it’s hard to get the images of a major building fire that claimed the lives of at least two people Friday out of his head.
Sleeping in his bedroom across from the three-storey, 100-year-old building on Notre-Dame Street in Old Montreal, Mollitt says he was awoken by what he thought was kids breaking windows.
Then he caught something far worse.
“All of a sudden, I hear a woman scream repeatedly, and it sounded absolutely horrible,” he said.
Mollitt went up to his roof to see a woman standing on the fire escape of the building directly across from him.
“I could see her arms waving and [hear] her screaming and it was pretty horrific,” he said. “And then the whole building sort of got engulfed with black smoke and I couldn’t see anything anymore.”
Moments later, large flames would overwhelm the building, which housed a restaurant on the main floor and a hostel above, and trigger a five-alarm fire response.
“About an hour later, I was literally sitting on my roof and I watched half the building collapse,” Mollitt said.
The fire broke out on the main floor of the building on Notre-Dame Street. Flames quickly spread, triggering a five-alarm fire. At least two people are dead and one is in critical condition.
Radio-Canada sources say the two victims killed in the fire were a mother and her seven-year-old daughter, who were French nationals. Police are still working to determine how many people were in the building at the time of the fire.
Mollitt says he’s working to recover from the shock of it all.
“I’ve got these images in my head that I’m trying to work through.”
Masked person seen breaking into building
The fire broke out on the main floor of the building around 2 a.m. Friday and the flames quickly spread to the second and third floors.
Police did not confirm its cause but said it was suspicious. The force’s major crimes unit is working closely with the arson squad on the case.
Security camera footage obtained by Radio-Canada shows a person breaking into the building minutes before the fire broke out. Montreal police said they would not comment on the footage.
Security footage obtained by Radio-Canada shows a hooded person wearing all-black clothing and a mask kicking in the restaurant’s side door minutes before the fire broke out.
The Montreal fire department (SIM) said the fire was brought under control early Saturday morning.
“They’re checking out the entire burned building, and if there are any small fires that need to be extinguished, they’ll put them out, and they’re securing the premises,” said SIM spokesman George Bele.
Police are continuing their investigation Saturday, blocking off several roads in the area for their work. Hydro-Québec crews are also still working to restore electricity to some neighbouring buildings where power was cut.
The investigation will consist of securing the building so that the rubble can be searched for any potential victims and evidence, police said.
About 16 individuals from the building and 22 households living in adjacent buildings are being supported by the Red Cross, the organization said in a statement Saturday.
Safety concerns
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. All but one victim were staying in short-term rentals there.
A restaurant and a hostel were operating in the building on Notre-Dame Street and have different people listed as their owners.
Some comments on booking websites describe the hostel, Le 402, as cramped and rundown. Multiple reviewers also report bedrooms without windows or windows that wouldn’t open.
On Friday, Martin Guilbault, a division chief with the Montreal fire department, said that in 2023, a number of fire code infractions were cited by inspectors at the building, but he said they had all been corrected.
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.
Ron Karpman, a man who lives in the area and witnessed both Friday’s building fire and the one on Place D’Youville, says he’d like to see more regulations to make these kinds of short-term units safer.
“I have no objection against Airbnbs and hostels being in the area, I just have concerns about them being adequately protected for the people that are staying in them,” he said.
Quebec Minister of Public Security François Bonnardel will hold a news conference at the scene of the fire around 2 p.m. to provide an update on the situation.