Station 9

By Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban

Four SPVM officers from Station 9, which serves Côte St. Luc, Hampstead, Montreal West and NDG, were honoured May 13 with the provincial Public Security ministry’s Medal for Meritorious Action at the National Police Academy of Quebec.

The four officers were honoured for saving residents of a burning building on Côte St. Luc Road near Westminster in Côte St. Luc on March 5, 2022. According to the SPVM, “arriving first on site, Sergeant Marc-André Lavoie as well as officers Anne Zhang, Keven Dubé and Félix Thellen saw flames and thick black smoke coming from the building.

“Faced with the urgency of the situation, the four colleagues immediately entered the eight-storey building. Together, they walked through the smoky hallways and banged on doors with all their might to wake residents.”

The SPVM pointed out that the four officers had neither breathing apparatus nor protective equipment, hindering their movements in the building.

“Fortunately, the entire PDQ 9 team arrived as reinforcements to complete the evacuation. The fire was finally brought under control by firefighters without any loss of life.”

The SPVM congratulated Sergeant Lavoie and Officers Zhang, Dubé and Thellen “for their bravery and determination.”

Two other fires took place in that area of Côte St. Luc in 2022, one at Westminster and CSL Road Aug. 18, was extinguished after an hour and was determined not to be criminal. That was an office building in the shopping centre where Station 9 is now located.

The second fire took place in a 14-storey residential building in October on nearby Kingsley Road, resulting in the death of a male resident and two people being treated for smoke inhalation. Police said at the time they did not believe there was criminality involved. That fire took more than two hours to put out. n