One dead, 6 missing as police search for victims of fire in Old Montreal

Montreal police say the body of a woman was pulled from the rubble Sunday evening, after a fire swept a historic Old Montreal building last week.

The search also continues for six people still missing from the blaze on March 16.

A Montreal fire department spokesman says firefighters will begin dismantling the second and third floors of the building on Monday.

Montreal police say the body of a woman was pulled from the rubble Sunday evening.

Insp. David Shane says the police force’s fire unit used a drone to help locate the victim.

Shane says the six people who are missing are from Quebec, Ontario and the United States, adding that investigators have contacted their families.

In an update, Monday, Fire Chief Richard Liebmann confirmed they now believe at least seven people are missing.

In a news conference Sunday evening, fire and police officials confirmed that the body was recovered at 6:45 p.m., and has been taken to a forensic lab to be identified.

“We are sensitive to what the families of the missing (people) are going through,” said Montreal fire operations chief Martin Guilbault.

“Our goal is, for the investigation, to share light … on this tragedy and provide answers for the families.”

The father of a young woman who remains missing after the fire swept through the building in Montreal’s historic district said he wants the city to ensure all rental units have proper fire escapes.

Old Montreal Fire. (Photo Credit: Alyssia Rubertucci, CityNews)

Charlie Lacroix, 18, lived in the Montreal suburb of Terrebonne, Que., and was staying in an Airbnb in the building with a friend after spending the day in the city.

Her father, Louis-Philippe Lacroix, said he’s been told his daughter called 911 twice within several minutes, unable to get out of the unit they were staying in, which had no window and no fire escape.

“How can someone rent an apartment, whether it’s for a day, or a year, or whatever with no way to exit?” he said in an interview earlier Sunday.

Lacroix said he’s hopeful the fire will lead to action from the city to ensure Airbnbs and apartments have proper fire exits.

“This happened, there’s nothing we can do, now do everything you freaking can to avoid another story like that,” he said.

Lacroix said he has no words to describe how he’s feeling other than “sad.” He said his daughter was someone who “had everything in front of her.”

Earlier on Sunday, investigators surveyed the scene and took photos from a cherry picker crane before the rest of the building started to be dismantled.

The fire department has said the building will be taken apart “brick by brick” to ensure the scene is safe for investigators.

Alina Kuzmina, who was staying in the building with her husband after attending a concert in Montreal, said she feels lucky to be alive.

Kuzmina, who lives in Cornwall, Ont., said her husband was awakened Thursday shortly after 5:30 a.m. by a loud noise and noticed the glow of flames under the door.

The couple quickly gathered a few items – leaving most of the possessions behind – and escaped from the semi-basement unit they were staying in by breaking a window, she said in an interview Sunday.

As she left the building, she said she saw a man jumping out a window.

“There was no way out,” she said. “The staircase was on fire.”

While Kuzmina said she’d noticed two fire alarms in the unit when they arrived, she had never thought to question whether they were working. She said she noticed they hadn’t gone off once she was outside.

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“I remember thinking, ‘Where are the fire alarms? Why am I not hearing anything? I saw two of them in the unit, why did none of them go off?” she said.

While the couple was able to escape with a few scrapes, Kuzmina said it would likely have been worse if they were staying on a higher floor.

Speaking to CityNews Monday morning Randy Thompson, who lives near door to the building said he was in shock adding there are many Airbnbs in the area, despite them being forbidden. “It’s very unsettling, you would hope that if they put these regulations in place, they actually enforce them and they make sure if people are using these as the equivalent of a hotel room, they have all the correct safety requirements, sprinklers, alarms, and everything’s functional. And, that they are being regulated and monitored on a regular basis.”

Commander Steve Belzil, the head of the arson squad that has taken over the investigation, said on Saturday that police haven’t ruled out the possibility that more victims would be found in the ruins.

He told reporters that police don’t know how many of the missing were tourists staying in short-term rentals and how many lived in the building permanently.

Nine people were injured in the fire. As of Sunday afternoon, two remained in the serious burn unit of the Centre hospitalier de l’Universite de Montreal, both in stable condition.

Firefighters originally believed that only one person was missing, but later learned that several apartments in the building were being used as Airbnb rentals.

City officials said Airbnb-style short-term rentals are illegal in the area where the building is located.

In a press conference Monday, Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante said the city will be working urgently with the province to see what can be done about Airbnbs to ensure laws are enforced

Plante also noted she has reached out to the company to have them collaborate, saying they would like all owners to put up permit numbers so they must prove they are certified to be listed on the site, to avoid illegal Airbnbs.

Alexandre Bergevin, a lawyer for the building’s owner, Emile-Haim Benamor, said Sunday that Airbnbs in the building were not being operated by his client, but rather by tenants, adding that steps had been taken to stop the practice.

He said in a text message that the alarm system had been replaced in 2019 and was regularly tested.

The building’s layout is complex, he wrote regarding the emergency exits. “It has always been deemed compliant in the past.”

Ben Breit, the global head of trust and safety communications at Airbnb, said in a statement that the company is providing support to those affected and assisting the police investigation.

“Our hearts go out to the victims of this tragedy, and to their families and loved ones,” he said in an email.

The company did not respond to questions about whether the fire will lead to policy changes or efforts to limit use of the platform by hosts operating illegally.

-With files from Alyssia Rubertucci and Tina Tenneriello, CityNews