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.

Authorities have not provided any details about a possible suspect, even when questioned about security camera footage obtained by Radio-Canada that shows a masked person breaking into the building minutes before the fire broke out.

“I think everybody saw the video that there was someone that came in here to put a fire on the restaurant,” said business owner Juan Matos.

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, Émile-Haim Benamor.

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 pending the criminal investigation.

Ensemble Montréal, the Opposition party at city hall, is urging the Valérie Plante administration to request that the city auditor’s office look into how transformation permits are issued and how inspections are done for older buildings.

“Old Montreal houses a lot of tourists, student travellers, as well as residents who live there,” said Alan DeSousa of Ensemble Montréal. “The buildings there are old, often going past 1940 and earlier. So we need to know, how do we make those buildings safe?

“The coroner’s inquiry is good news, but our big concern is time.”

Both buildings in question were being used for short-term rentals – aside from the restaurant on the first floor of the Notre-Dame building, where the fire started.

The Montreal fire department says a visit to the restaurant this spring showed it was compliant. It’s not clear whether the hostel upstairs was part of that inspection.

But the Place d’Youville building had several fire safety violations, it’s been shown.

“We would like to see action quickly with a view to preventing these type of events happening, rather than waiting two years or more for coroner’s report, whereby other people could still be potential victims,” DeSousa said.

–With files from Swidda Rassy