Montreal’s West Island residents hoping to recover urns after funeral home fire

The Collins Clarke MacGillivray White funeral home in Pointe Claire, on Montreal’s West Island, went up in flames November 8th. It has caused major damage to the building, and many who have loved ones who have passed resting there are hoping to be able to recover their urns.

“Once I heard news and I saw it, it was totally devastating. It’s like losing them all over again. It was hard to believe,” said Leah Gilmore, a local resident. “Both my parents, their urns and everything else, are in the columbarium. And my mom has been here for 15 years in December. And this December my dad will be there for five years.”

Linda Turcotte-Vincelli is also hoping to recover an urn.

“It’s my husband and he passed away nine and a half years ago,” said Turcotte-Vincelli, adding, “when I heard about it it was very upsetting and of course it’s a tragic thing and you’re not sure if they can be saved and you know it’s just terribly emotional.”

There was no one injured in the fire and the cause is still under investigation.

The funeral home is well-known in the community.

“My feeling about this building is that I’ve been here for very important people’s parents, brothers, sisters, relatives,” said Tim Thomas, the mayor of Pointe Claire. “I’ve been for very meaningful services here and that is what I’ll take from this building and that’s what I take away from this building is the wonderful people that I’ve celebrated and come to commemorate here.”  

“It was major. We come at least once a month to say hello and visit my parents. This Tuesday we were going to come and drop off a poinsettia for my parents for the holiday season,” explained Gilmore.

In a written statement to CityNews, the Collins Clarke MacGillivray White Funeral Home said that their priority is for the families. And that they have been a proud member of the community since 1940. They add that they are in the process of contacting families about this unfortunate event.

“I just spoke to someone who said that they recovered a lot of the urns. I’m hoping his is one of them,” said Turcotte-Vincelli. “I spoke to the funeral parlor yesterday and they said that they were going to bring the urns down to their Sherbrooke place.”

“I was very upset before, but speaking to one of the gentlemen from the funeral home, they said that they’ve just gained access and it looks like some of the urns should be salvageable. They just have to get to them,” said Gilmore, adding, “he also informed me that they are probably most likely going to rebuild and have a better facility.”