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Clean up crews sift through rubble around Dollard apartment building damaged by fire Monday. (ALLEN McINNIS/The Gazette)
Fire guts Dollard apartment complex
20 people forced from their homes after candle causes four-alarm blaze
ANNE SUTHERLAND
The Gazette
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Clean up crews sift through rubble around Dollard apartment building damaged by fire Monday. (ALLEN McINNIS/The Gazette)
A love bird alerted a Dollard des Ormeaux resident that her apartment was on fire Monday night. Whether the pet perished in the fire or escaped, the owner does not know.
A four-alarm fire broke out in the rear bedroom of an apartment building at 1594 Sunnybrooke Blvd. at around 10:30 p.m.
The fire spread to the roof of the three-storey building. Twenty-one trucks and 90 firefighters battled the blaze.
Laura, who does not want her last name published, was asleep on the living room couch, exhausted from her workday as a gardener.
“I guess my bird smelled the smoke, before the alarm went off,” she said yesterday as she surveyed the gutted remains of her dwelling.
Roused from sleep, she tried to carry her bird to safety, but the cage collapsed.
“I picked up the cage, but the bottom fell out. I don’t know if the bird escaped out the window,” she said.
There were no human injuries in Monday’s evacuation of 20 people. A candle is thought to be the cause of the fire, Montreal fire department spokesperson Josée Gosselin said.
Tenants of the 12-unit building that sustained $100,000 worth of damage were salvaging what they could on Tuesday from the smoke, water and fire-damaged structure.
Charred clothing lay scattered on the lawn. Blackened insulation, burned photo albums, a gutted armchair and a brass bed headboard littered the area.
White patio furniture melted like ice-cream in the intense heat. Two bikes chained to the balcony above where the fire began were burned to a crisp.
Deep and muddy tire marks on the lawn surrounding the building laid witness to the many fire trucks that answered the alarm.
“The building has a central alarm that is connected to the fire department,” said Steve Sawides, an administrator with Domaine des érables, the housing complex where the fire occurred.
“The firemen went through the building and threw everything out (the windows). The inspectors were here today and it’s safe to go in. So you know what that means; they don’t suspect arson,” Sawides added.
Shane Leonard, a tenant in the building next door, grabbed his apartment’s fire extinguisher and tried to put out the flames that were shooting out the window of Laura’s bedroom.
“The firefighters took their sweet time fighting the fire,” Leonard complained on Tuesday.
But his criticisms were not echoed by Treena Bryant, who lived on the third floor and escaped with only smoke and water damage to her apartment.
“The firemen had to study the fire to see how they could contain it,” Bryant said.
She knows what she’s talking about. This was the second fire Bryant has had to endure in 18 months.
“No, I didn’t have insurance in either case. If I don’t get insurance now, I’m a moron,” Bryant said.
The owners of the complex have offered to relocate tenants to other apartments they own. Les érables has 228 apartment in 19 buildings in the West Island.
asutherland@
thegazette.canwest.com