The man found unconscious on Thursday morning in a burning apartment building in the Saint-Sauveur district of Quebec City has died from his injuries.
The 65-year-old man was found unconscious by firefighters inside the dwelling where the fire started.
Several 911 calls around 5 a.m. indicated that a three-storey building on Saint-Vallier Street Ouest was on fire. The building houses a business on the ground floor and apartments on the upper floors.
Quebec City police (SPVQ) officers were the first to arrive on the scene. They tried to enter the building to help the occupants of the five apartments to get out but were pushed back by the dense smoke.
As a result, the fire brigade evacuated the building as soon as they arrived, including rescuing a man who was trapped on his balcony. It was during the evacuation that they found the victim unconscious in one of the units.
The Quebec City Fire Department put out an apartment fire on Saint-Vallier Street West. Five apartments needed to be evacuated. SOURCE: SPCIQ/Twitter
The fire was brought under control, but the damage to the apartments was significant. The water used to douse the flames damaged the commercial establishment on the ground floor.
The fire brigade requested that the power supply in the vicinity be interrupted. In the meantime, representatives of the Canadian Red Cross were on the scene to help evacuees.
An investigation by the SPVQ is underway.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known, but firefighters noted the absence of the audible signal that working smoke alarms would usually emit.
“Nearly 90 per cent of fatal fires occur in residential buildings where the smoke alarms were non-functional or absent,” the Quebec City fire department (SPCIQ) pointed out.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Aug. 17, 2023.
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