Violent fire in a building in Longueuil

A violent fire ravaged an apartment building in the Greenfield Park area of ​​Longueuil on Wednesday afternoon.

The firefighters, who arrived on the scene around 3:45 p.m., quickly attacked the blaze that spread on the roof of the building on Victoria Avenue, which has about 40 homes.

The Longueuil Fire Department had to trigger a general alert, sending dozens of firefighters to fight the flames.

According to information provided by firefighters, residents were all evacuated. A bus from the Longueuil transport network went to the site to welcome them temporarily, while the Red Cross was expected on site to provide assistance to the victims.

A young man who moved into this apartment building in September was returning from work when he realized his home was on fire. So he parked further away and rushed towards the building, determined to save his pet.

“I entered the boucanane. It’s like in the movies: it screams the bell, the firemen, it smells of buccaneer, all the doors are smashed. I took my cage, my cat and my important papers and I went out, ”Simon Goulet told TVA Nouvelles.

He says he always felt compassion for those to whom this kind of drama happened, but experiencing it on your own was completely another thing. “Especially to feel helpless, to see your home burn and not being able to do anything”, he detailed.

The authorities were not yet able to give the cause of the fire.

At the end of the afternoon, a large plume of smoke could be seen for several kilometers around, both in Montérégie and on the island of Montreal.