For the second time six months a five-alarm fire has burned through a building on St. Denis St. at Cherrier St.

The fire broke out at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday in the building, which has a restaurant on the ground floor and previous to another fire had several residential apartments on the upper floors.

Dozens of firefighters rushed to the scene Tuesday but they were not able to enter the building because of the risk of the floors collapsing, and part of the roof and the facade caved in as crews battled the fire.

They said nobody was in the building itself when the fire began, but residents of the adjacent building were forced to leave their homes for their own safety.

Police closed St. Denis St. between Sherbrooke St. and Pine Ave., and also told the STM to close the Sherbrooke metro station so as to keep people away from the area.

Firefighters had the fire under control by 9:30 a.m.

The cause of Tuesday's fire is not yet known.

On March 11 a fire broke out in the cellar of the restaurant in the building, Universel Dejeuner, and spread to the top floor.

The damage from that fire was extensive and left more than 40 people homeless.