Montreal police searching for at least 6 people after fire
Police report that six people remain missing after a major fire that tore through the historic building in Old Montreal on March 16.
One of those people is 18-year-old Charlie Lacroix from Terrebonne, north of Montreal.
“My daughter’s friend told us she had been there the night before, so we went to the police station and found out she had called 911 twice in three minutes saying they couldn’t get out because there were no windows in the room.” said his father, Louis Philippe Lacroix.
Lacroix will be at the scene of the fire Saturday to try to find a cure and move forward.
“Hearing this news and having to tell my son and people is seriously the worst thing I could ever go through as a parent,” Lacroix said.
Another missing person is 75-year-old photographer Kamil Maho, who lived in the building for 30 years.
People started laying flowers in front of the apartment building where a big fire broke out on March 16, 2023. Six people remain missing and authorities fear their bodies may be buried under the rubble. (Olivia O’Malley/CTV News)
Lacroix said authorities have not found her daughter’s body, but members of the Montreal Fire Department (SSIM) and the Montreal Police Department (SPVM) arson squad held a press conference Saturday morning and confirmed that at least six people were missing and possibly that are in the basin. building
“In the last few hours, confirmed information received from various sources allows us to believe that there may be victims inside the rubble,” said SIM Captain Martin Guilbeau.
Guilbeau said authorities still don’t know where or how the fire started and that the 15-unit building on Place d’Youville is still being analyzed.
UNAUTHORIZED AIRBNB UNITS
Some of the apartments were Airbnb units.
Montreal city councilor Alain Vaillancourt is responsible for public safety, and he said there are no certificates issued for the building.
“Here in Ville Marie, there’s only a certain area where you can have Airbnbs in Saint Catherine [Street]; this is not one of them,” Vaillancourt said. “Ville Marie has never received an Airbnb permit here, and there have never been any Airbnb complaints in this building.
Nine people were taken to the hospital after the fire.
Two of the nine victims are still hospitalized at the Burn Center of the Université Hospitals de Montréal (CHUM), said SPVM arson commander Steve Belzile.
With Canadian press files.
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