Work crews have demolished what remained of a historic building that caught fire in Chinatown.
Flames were spotted coming from the second floor of the Robillard building on St. Laurent Blvd. near Viger Ave. at 11:20 a.m. on Thursday.
Renovations on the building had come to a stop in April because of asbestos being inside.
As a result there were no interior floors in the building, which allowed the flames to quickly spread throughout the structure, and for walls to collapse.
It took two hours to get the fire under control, and several more hours to extinguish every flame and ember.
At 5 a.m. Friday work crews demolished what remained of the building as firefighters poured water on the wreckage to make sure there were no hot spots lying under the ash and rubble.
Police closed St. Laurent Blvd. so the work could proceed unhindered, but shortly after 7 a.m. had to order pedestrians and bystanders out of the area after crews cut a natural gas line.
With the demolition work completed, the arson squad will comb through the rubble in an attempt to determine how the fire began.
The sections of Viger Ave., Clark St. and St. Laurent Blvd. around the building will be off-limits to vehicle traffic until 9 p.m. on Monday Nov. 21.
