Montreal mayor acknowledges fire dept. stopped investigating building evacuation routes 5 years ago

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante acknowledged that fire inspectors stopped investigating building evacuation routes in 2018.

The revelation comes after a report Monday by The Globe and Mail that said the city’s fire department would have ended the moratorium in the days following the fatal blaze that killed seven people in an Old Montreal heritage building on March 16, which left nine others injured.

According to documents obtained by the newspaper, the suspension prevented a safety review of the building.
At Tuesday’s city council meeting, the mayor confirmed that a moratorium had been put in place.

She said the information was given to her after calls were made to the fire department’s senior management following the Globe and Mail article the previous day.

The mayor said, however, the moratorium was lifted in 2021 and not after the fatal Old Montreal fire.

READ: Old Montreal fire: the stories of seven victims

Plante assured she wanted to shed light on the situation.

The main Opposition in Montreal criticized Plante for not knowing about the moratorium prior the article.

“We are shocked that Mayor Plante learned of the existence of the SIM’s (Service de sécurité incendie de Montréal) moratorium on building safety audits via the media,” said party leader Aref Salem. “If information of this magnitude escapes her, what other vital information is she missing?”

At a press conference Tuesday afternoon, fire chief Richard Liebmann clarified, saying  there was never a moratorium in place for inspections for fire prevention.

He did say that in the past there was a moratorium in place for certain complex judicial cases.

Liebmann said they would transfer these cases to the Régie du bâtiment du Québec and would collaborate with them. He reiterated that fire safety is a priority for him.

The fire chief says the controller general will examine what was done in the past.