Verdun fire caused by thawing frozen pipes with blowtorch

CTV Montreal: Fire in Verdun A fire was started in Verdun after a man attempted to thaw pipes with a blowtorch.

A Verdun residential building was severely damaged by a fire that started when a man tried to thaw a frozen pipe with a blowtorch on Thursday afternoon.

Firefighters received a call at 1:37 p.m. about the fire in a six-unit building on Rushbrooke.

The four-alarm fire took roughly two hours to extinguish. At the fire department’s request, Hydro-Quebec shut down power in the area, causing an outage that affected roughly 6,000 homes.

Fire department Chief of Operations Benoit Martel said the fire caused roughly $200,000 in damage, with every unit being affected.

Some of the residents are receiving temporary care from the Red Cross.