Residents, as well as children from a daycare, were forced out of a mixed commercial and residential building in Saint-Michel near the Metropolitan Expressway Monday afternoon as a major fire broke out. The Montreal firefighters were alerted to the blaze at around 12:45 p.m. on Saint-Michel Boulevard at Crémazie Boulevard The four-storey building has commercial units on the ground floor, which include the St-Michel Daycare and three floors of residential properties. “When firefighters arrived on scene, there were many people on balconies, so we had to do a lot of rescues of those people,” said Montreal Fire Department (SIM) spokesperson Martin Guilbeault. The entire building needed to be evacuated, and three people were transported to the hospital for smoke inhalation. No children were injured. “All the children have been taken care of,” said Guilbeault. As of 3 p.m., the fire was still burning, and authorities are advising residents and commuters to avoid the area.
