A missing victim, nine people hospitalized, damaged building, smoke alarms may not be functional according to firefighters: the flames ravaged a building in Place D’Youville, in the Old Montreal area, on Thursday. The owner, lawyer Émile Benamor, has had run-ins with the city in the past over some of his buildings, including an illegal rooming house that was recently vacated.

Stephanie Gallella, 31, woke up Thursday to cries for help. “HELP!” HELP! HELP! “The resident of Old Montreal lives in the building next to the one that caught fire. She is used to being woken up by the screams of revelers, gunshots or fights. “But there, I opened the curtains and there was this huge fire. »

She watched the fire start. The firefighters came very quickly. “The flames originated on the second floor. They spread quickly. It’s an old heritage building,” says the master’s student in heritage conservation. “Then there was like a semi-explosion. I felt all the heat. »

At least one person is missing, Montreal Fire Director Richard Liebmann said in a noon press briefing. “There is a person we are actively looking for. »

“The smoke detectors in some of the apartments were possibly defective,” said Martin Guilbault, division chief at the Montreal Fire Department (SIM), during a press briefing.

“Nine people, including three seriously injured, were transported to a hospital, among other things for burns,” said Mr. Guilbault.

Firefighters said at least one person jumped out of a window to escape the blaze.

Me Alexandre Bergevin, the lawyer for the owner Émile Benamor, vigorously denied the suspicions of the firefighters on the absence or the failure of the smoke detectors. “That is completely untrue. Everything was checked recently and there were no problems with this building,” he said.

His client may have had problems with the municipal authorities at other addresses, but these setbacks have nothing to do with the fire on Thursday, according to him. “Do not mix things up,” he stressed.

The fire broke out around 5:40 a.m. Thursday and required a fifth alert. Nearly 120 firefighters were deployed and were fighting their way through the thick smoke that was spreading through the neighborhood.

“We were able to return to our apartments after a brief evacuation,” said Mounir Rouahi, a resident who witnessed the fire.

“We would like to thank the exceptional work of the firefighters who notably made it possible to secure the Pointe-à-Callière museum. The quick response helped protect the museum and its archives,” said the office of Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante.

“The building ravaged by flames on Thursday morning houses Airbnb-type accommodation,” confirmed to La Presse Stéphanie Lorrain, SIM media relations.

However, municipal regulations prohibit the rental of accommodation on this platform at this location.

The building was protected under the Cultural Heritage Act. It was built in 1890. “The building was designed to house the offices of the Ogilvie Milling Company, the Ogilvie family business which dominated the milling industry in Canada and was on its way to becoming the largest flour mill in the Dominion,” explains the building’s official listing, which highlights the great value of the woodwork, its corner tower, and its carved tympana.

The lawyer Émile Benamor, owner of the heritage building destroyed by the flames Thursday morning, owns about fifteen buildings on the territory of Montreal, according to the Land Registry. Among his properties, several houses and multi-unit buildings.

In a report consulted by La Presse, the SIM claims to have already intervened in another building belonging to Me Benamor, rue Notre-Dame, in Old Montreal. “The purpose of my intervention was to carry out an inspection following a complaint by a tenant of the presence of a clandestine rooming house”, says an inspector in an offense report dated 2021 and filed in the Municipal Court.

The inspector claims to have discovered that as an emergency exit, the 15 rooms located on the upper floors had a metal staircase which had to be descended using a set of cables and pulleys in the event of an emergency. One of his colleagues then wanted to test the solidity of the device. “Coming halfway through the flight, the cable suddenly tore and the stairs abruptly descended to the ground,” the inspector recounts.

His colleague had to be treated in hospital for a broken ankle and stitches. A statement of offense for having owned a building with means of evacuation in poor condition was given to Me Benamor. However, the lawyer was acquitted because the evidence did not establish that he had failed to resolve the problem.

Unsanitary conditions, deficient washbasin, sewer backup, strong smell of excrement, all this inside a rooming house in an area where rooming houses are prohibited: the City of Westmount filed a request for injunction to the Superior Court to have another Émile Benamor property on Saint-Antoine Street West posted after an inspection last month.

Four people were staying in the building when a city inspector noticed the presence of excrement and sewage in connection with a backflow, according to the court document, which has not yet been assessed by a judge. Three tenants would still occupy the accommodation despite the City’s warning to leave the premises described as unsanitary. The case is to be heard by the Court shortly.

Rooming houses are not permitted in this area, it says.