Saint-Michel families face uncertainty after five-alarm fire

Families forced from their homes by a five-alarm fire in Saint-Michel are trying to figure out what comes next as they remain unable to return to their apartments.

The Canadian Red Cross says it was assisting about 95 people from 32 families Tuesday, providing food, clothing and temporary hotel accommodation following Monday’s fire.

For Hatem Ruis, a father of four, the uncertainty over where his family will go next is already setting in.

“After three days, the Red Cross told us that we’ll have to find other living arrangements,” Ruis said. “I’m in a very complicated situation because I can’t work because of everything that is going on… I have to find a solution for my family, I have four children.”

The five-alarm fire broke out shortly before 1 p.m. Monday in a large residential-commercial building near Saint-Michel Boulevard and Crémazie Boulevard East.

About 150 firefighters responded, according to Montreal Fire Services. A daycare with 70 children on the first floor was evacuated, while residents fled their apartments — some leaving without their phones, wallets and other belongings.

Ruis says he left with nothing and then helped evacuate children from the daycare, where his daughter was.

“We didn’t take anything with us — absolutely nothing,” he said. “I immediately went down to the daycare. I have a daughter there, and I went to help get the kids out.”

Ruis then borrowed a phone to call his longtime friend and neighbour Aymen Brahim, who was still inside his third-floor apartment.

Brahim says the smoke alarm inside his apartment did not sound and he was unaware of the fire until Ruis called him.

“(Hatem) called me to say, ‘Aymen, run! It’s a fire!’” Brahim said.

When he left his apartment, Brahim says smoke had filled the area and firefighters directed him towards a neighbour’s balcony.

“There was me, an elderly woman and an elderly man,” he said. “They brought us down using the firefighters’ ladders. It was scary.”

Martin Guilbault, a division chief with the Montreal fire department, says firefighters encountered heavy smoke and residents on balconies when they arrived.

“We had to use ladders to evacuate those people,” Guilbault said.

Three people were transported to hospital and treated for minor smoke inhalation. No firefighters were injured.

The cause of the fire remained under investigation Tuesday.

Firefighters were still working at the building Tuesday morning, while fire-prevention teams went door-to-door in nearby buildings checking smoke alarms.

Residents waiting to retrieve belongings

Ruis and Brahim returned to the scene Tuesday, hoping for information about when they could get back inside.

“We came to see if we can get our cars,” Brahim said. “Can we get our belongings? Our documents, our memories that are still inside?”

Residents remained unable to return home Tuesday, although the fire department said they could potentially be allowed inside to retrieve belongings later in the day. Officials could not say exactly when that would happen.

CityNews also reached out to the building’s management company for more information about when residents may be able to return, but did not immediately receive a response.

Donny Straub, senior director of emergency management for the Canadian Red Cross in Quebec, says the organization was providing essential services including food, clothing and hotel accommodation for the first 72 hours.

“There were a lot of children in this fire, unfortunately,” Straub said. “The next few days will be hard.”

Straub says Red Cross volunteers meet with families individually and work with the city as the initial emergency-assistance period comes to an end.

“We meet every single individual family and then we work alongside the city to see what can be done,” he said.

Straub said the Office municipal d’habitation de Montréal often provides assistance to certain people following the initial 72-hour period.

CityNews reached out to the OMHM, but it could not immediately confirm whether it would be assisting residents displaced by this fire.

A pet still inside

Mohammed Anoir Kasdalli, who has lived in the building for eight years, says he rushed to the building from work after learning about the fire, meeting his wife and 10-year-old child outside.

He’s now worried about finding another home close enough for his children to remain at their schools.

“I have to start over again, buy furniture, find somewhere to live,” he said. “It can’t be too far because my children go to school nearby. That’s what worries me.”

For Kasdalli, the uncertainty caused by the fire extended to a member of his family still inside: his seven-month-old pet bird remained in the apartment Tuesday.

“I have a bird inside, and I don’t know if it’s alive or not,” Kasdalli initially said.

CityNews later learned the bird was alive and well.