A woman died in a fire in the basement of a residential building in Quebec City on Saturday night.
At around 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, the Quebec Fire Protection Service (SPCIQ) received calls reporting that flames had broken out in the basement of a semi-detached house on Boulevard Johnny-Parent in the Neufchâtel sector.
The building was quickly evacuated and about fifty firefighters were called to prevent the flames from spreading to the upper floors, said Alexandre Lajoie, spokesman for the SPCIQ.
The fire was brought under control by the fire department on site around 3:40 a.m.
“There was a car in the parking lot, which led us to believe there may have been a person inside. The first unit on scene confirms the fire and establishes power to quickly conduct an initial search for a victim. An unconscious person is evacuated from the building. Paramedics determined his death at the scene,” the SPCIQ said in a joint press release with the Quebec City Police Service (SPVQ).
SPVQ investigators and forensic identification technicians were dispatched to the scene to determine the causes and circumstances of this event, all “in collaboration with fire station investigators.”
According to information from TVA nouvelles, the nature of the fire appears suspicious.