Olympic Park fire cleanup cost rises to $105M as damage proves extensive

The fire at the Olympic tower in 2024 cost tens of millions of dollars more to fix than expected.

The cost of decontamination work following a March 2024 fire at Montreal’s Olympic Park sports centre has climbed to $105 million after the damage proved more extensive than first estimated.

The Legault government had initially granted $40 million for cleanup and repairs inside the sports centre and the Olympic stadium tower.

However, Olympic Park spokesperson Cédric Essiminy said they soon realized much more work would be needed after smoke contaminated the ventilation ducts.

“We had to decontaminate the entire ventilation system, which represents almost nine kilometres of ducts across the 14 floors of the tower, plus an area that spanned more than 100,000 square metres,” Essiminy explained.

“This is one of the reasons the cost increased, also because smoke spread through the ducts and into the floors used by our tenants. We had to clean the ventilation ducts, as well as all the floors, furniture, screens, and so on.”

The fire, which broke out in the early morning of March 21, 2024, started at the base of the stadium’s tower, according to the Montreal fire department (SIM). The file was later transferred to the Montreal police (SPVM) arson squad.

Essiminy said that at its peak, roughly 250 workers were on site, working 10-hour days, seven days a week, to reopen the sports centre and tower as quickly as possible, since the closure disrupted not only the businesses housed in the tower, but also members and the thousands of Quebec and Canadian athletes from the National Sports Institute (INS).

“We’re talking about roughly 4,000 people that come and train every day, plus the athletes from the INS. But also, we have around 2,500 people that work inside the tower from our two corporate tenants,” Essiminy noted.

While the sports centre reopened in March 2025 and work is roughly 99 per cent complete, the spokesperson said some repairs are still needed on the exterior of the tower where the fire began.

“There is also still some work to be done on the corporate floors to help tenants return to their original spaces. Tenants now have access to their floors, and on our side, we’re fine-tuning to ensure everything is in place. We expect it to be completed by the end of the year.”

Essiminy said the Olympic Park does not expect any additional costs, but if any do arise, the organization would cover them from its own budget.

With files from The Canadian Press.