On Friday evening, a violent fire broke out in a building on Notre-Dame Street in Montreal, very close to the Quebecor offices.
The fire, which broke out around 8:15 p.m., quickly required a fifth alarm, requiring the deployment of approximately sixty vehicles and nearly 150 firefighters.
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Neighboring buildings, including Quebecor’s offices, were quickly evacuated.
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Several witnesses at the scene reportedly heard an explosion.
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Louis-Philippe Drolet, co-owner of the KO group, which operates on television, watched the work of the firefighters with concern last night. His company is located in offices in a building that shares a common wall with the burned building.
Another vacant historic building (built in 1891, photo from 1918) at 639 rue Notre-Dame in Old Montreal is the subject of a major level 5 fire (the highest level), requiring 150 firefighters. That’s enough! Montreal needs to better protect its built heritage #fail #polmtl pic.twitter.com/kQfqSRzJdT
— J.Serge Sasseville (he/him-he/him) (@SergeSasseville) October 28, 2023
“We know there is damage on one of our floors. We don’t know any more. Smoke, water damage, that’s what concerns us.”
The four-story building that burned was a commercial building that he said had been abandoned for more than five years.
“The windows were boarded up. I don’t know what they wanted to do there as a project.”
At around 10 p.m., firefighters were still irrigating the building while flames were still visible.
On the street side of Sainte-Antoine, behind the burning building, towers containing hundreds of condominiums were evacuated.
“I don’t know if I can come back for the night,” worries Stephen, one of the tower residents. I arrived and it was already like that. I couldn’t come in. »
Brigitte, one of the evacuees, doesn’t know if the procedure is preventive or if the 34-story building where she lives is damaged.
“We have no information. I think it will be a while before we can go back,” she said.