Five-alarm fire strikes NDG property
By Joel Ceausu
The Suburban
The Montreal Police arson squad is investigating the five-alarm fire that hit a vacant property on Robert Burns in CDN-NDG, off Côte Saint-Luc road Sunday morning. Area residents reported smoke rising from the three-storey building before 5 am, and firefighters arrived to begin battling the blaze.
Montreal police say that it was soon determined that the fire was deliberately set inside the building which has been vacant for two years.
As of 6 AM Sunday morning the neighborhood air was thick with the smell of smoke, which lingered until at least 9 PM Sunday night long after firefighters had left. At 10 pm Sunday police and fire investigators remained on scene inspecting the property.
The site is known for frequent incidents including vandalism, youth gathering on the roof, and pest issues.
Last summer several police cruisers chased a gang of teens through Côte Saint-Luc after they were spotted on the property reportedly attempting to light a fire. The teens scattered throughout the neighborhood eluding police officers who chased them in cars and on foot through parking lots and underground garages.
The property is also well known as the source of a local rat problem, with rodents seen daily scurrying across the pedestrian bridge over Côte Saint-Luc Road to feed on garbage bins on Adalbert, Earle, Ashdale, or south to the fields and Connaught, racing back to the property to nest.
The property is slated for demolition this year to make way for an 18-storey mixed commercial and residential building. The 120-kV overhead high-voltage line within the Hydro-Québec easement behind the building will also be replaced by a larger, 65-metre high pylon closer to the railway track to accommodate the city’s and Hydro’s 27-km green corridor.
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