As many as 30 families and 70 children from a daycare were forced out of a mixed commercial and residential building in Montreal’s Saint-Michel neighbourhood 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, near the Metropolitan Expressway. The four-storey building has commercial units on the ground floor, including the St-Michel Daycare, and three floors of 36 residential units. “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. None of the daycare children were injured when leaving the building, and none of the residents sustained major injuries. “All the children have been taken care of,” said Guilbeault. The fire was burning into the early evening, and authorities are advising residents and commuters to avoid the area.
