Old Montreal fire: Quebec chief coroner orders public inquiry into deaths of mother, daughter

Quebec’s chief coroner has ordered a public inquiry into the deaths of a mother and daughter from France in last week’s Old Montreal fire.

Léonor Geraudie, 43, and her seven-year-old daughter Vérane Reynaud-Geraudie died in Friday’s blaze in the three-storey building on Notre-Dame Street E.

Two people were injured, including one who remains in hospital in critical condition.

Coroner Géhane Kamel will preside over the inquiry into the deaths of the French nationals. Kamel is also presiding over the inquiry into the deaths of seven people in a separate building fire in Old Montreal on March 16, 2023. Both buildings were owned by the same person.

Quebec Public Security Minister François Bonnardel had put in a request for both deadly fires to be combined within the same coroner’s inquest.

Quebec’s Coroner’s Office says the two inquiries could eventually be combined “depending on the progress of the files,” given the two cases are similar.

“The terms of the investigation and hearings will be established in accordance with the law, taking care not to undermine the ongoing judicial process in these two cases,” the coroner’s officer wrote. “The investigation will make it possible to formulate, if necessary, recommendations in order to avoid other deaths in similar circumstances.”

No date has been set for the public inquiry into the March 2013 Old Montreal fire.

“We are still waiting for the start of the investigation into the Place d’Youville fire announced more than a year and a half ago,” Abdelhaq Sari, Ensemble Montréal’s spokesperson on public security, said in a statement. “These investigations will unfortunately not be able to begin until the criminal investigations are completed. We cannot wait for one more fatal fire before shedding light on these tragedies.

“Despite an initial refusal in April 2023, we are once again urging the Plante administration to mandate the Office of the City’s Auditor General to investigate the processes for issuing conversion permits and compliance inspections of work carried out in buildings constructed before 1940, including in the Ville-Marie borough.”