Open in full screen mode An empty building was engulfed in flames in Old Montreal, at the corner of Notre-Dame Est streets and Gauvin. Radio-Canada An empty building was engulfed in flames on Notre-Dame Street, in Old Montreal, Friday evening. The fire broke out around 8 p.m., before spreading to the upper floors. According to Sylvain Jalbert, section chief at the Montreal Fire Department (SIM), a call was made in the middle of the evening to report the fire which was ravaging 639, rue Notre-Dame Ouest, facing the street Saint-Henri in Old Montreal. A fifth alarm had to be triggered to contain the blaze, which prompted the deployment of some 150 firefighters .
Everything indicates that the building was vacant, according to the Montreal Fire Department, which reported no casualties.
It's a fight that x27;was carried out until the early hours of the morning, said Mr. Jalbert, Saturday morning, while smoke was still rising from the building ten hours later, even if the fire was under control.
The roof collapsed, as did the floors of both floors. All that remains is the facade of this heritage building built in 1891, whose transformation into a hotel seems to have failed and which has since been for sale.
“639 rue Notre-Dame Ouest is an exceptional opportunity for commercial and residential purposes,” indicates the sales brochure from Colliers, an investment, brokerage and real estate management company.
The building is owned by the Shiller Lavy group.
The place was without electricity with nothing inside. That's what's a little suspicious. What could have caused this explosion and this fire?, explained Sabrina Gauthier, spokesperson for the Police Department of the City of Montreal.
We will wait until daybreak to go inside to check if there are victims, traces of accelerant, objects incendiaries of any kind, she added about the police investigation which is beginning.
With information from Charlotte Dumoulin, Jacob Côté and The Canadian Press