A fire burning in an abandoned building slated for redevelopment on De Lorimier Avenue in Montreal has forced the closure of the Jacques-Cartier Bridge on Wednesday.
The northbound lanes of the bridge heading into Montreal were initially closed at around 2:30 a.m. and then fully closed as of 6:15 a.m. There is no indication of when the bridge might re-open.
While the bridge itself is not affected, heavy smoke is spreading and authorities are also concerned the building could collapse.
Some 120 firefighters have been battling the blaze, which started at around 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday on the first floor of what was formerly an industrial building.
Éric Lafrance, a spokesperson for the Montreal fire department, said the four-alarm fire broke out on the first floor of the heritage building, but quickly spread engulfing it completely.
As of 6 a.m., flames could be seen jutting from the roof, an indication the roof had collapsed on the inside of the building, according to Lafrance.
“We’re in defence mode,” he said.
“We’re only applying water from the outside to extinguish the flames.”
Fire near Jacques-Cartier Bridge forces its closure during morning rush hour
The building, which was built in 1910, had been vacant for several years, Lafrance said.
According to Héritage Montréal, the first occupant was soap manufacturer Joseph Barsalou.
It changed hands in 1935, when it was bought by Procter and Gamble, and again in 1943 after Familex, a pharmaceutical company owned by Roméo Parent, purchased it and held on to it for 40 years.
Héritage Montréal says the building “is best known for the curve in the design it forced on the Jacques-Cartier Bridge.”
When the bridge was planned, business at the soap factory was booming, and the family refused to sell the property to the corporation responsible for the construction of the bridge, making the curve necessary to bypass the building.
Dinu Bumbaru, policy director Héritage Montréal, says there have been recent discussions between the Ville-Marie borough and developers to create a project that would integrate the heritage building in the new Quartier des lumières neighbourhood.
Property records show the building is linked to the Bertone Development Corporation, a real-estate development company, with family members Claudio and Michele Bertone listed as beneficiaries.
Plans on the Bertone website say the project would “reinvent the entrance to the city, proposing to complement the iconic experience of the infrastructure by creating a new signature perspective.”
There are no reports of injuries and the cause of the fire is unknown.
