POINTE-CLAIRE - Two people are dead following a violent blaze that ripped through a three-storey apartment complex in Pointe-Claire early Saturday morning.

Witnesses at the scene say the victims are a boy who would have turned 14 Saturday and his mother.

Building resident Rudith Ramoutar said the 12-year-old brother was saved by a neighbour.

"The man opened the door and he grabbed the boy, and the boy said, ‘My mom is there too, my mom is there too,' but it was so black and smoke he couldn't go in to get the two of them, so he grabbed just the kid and he ran out," said Ramoutar.

Neighbours say the boy is now with his father.

About 100 people evacuated the building at 504 St. Jean Blvd. near Douglas Shand Ave. at about 2:15 a.m. as firefighters battled the flames from the five-alarm fire.

"Everything was on fire. It was very scary. I closed my eyes. I couldn't see -- it was too difficult to look at the flames," said resident Barula Rodrigues.

Firefighters discovered the two bodies inside; their identities have not yet been confirmed by police.

An arson squad from the Montreal police investigated the scene, said Montreal police Const. Raphael Bergeron., because at this point it's unclear whether the fire was accidental or criminal.

"Nothing criminal appears in this case, but we don't take any chances, so that's why the arson squad is on the scene -- due to the fact we have two deaths," he said.

Montreal fire department spokesperson Pierre Seigin said there was no smoke detector in the apartment where the fatalities occurred.

The central alarms sounded however many in the building said they thought it was a false alarm and ignored it until the janitor began to scream an evacuation order.

Seigin said people living in apartment buildings face the greatest risk of getting injured or dying in a fire.

"The fire can start in one of your neighbours' (apartments) and if you don't have a smoke detector working, you can be in major problem," he said.

The 12-year-old boy told witnesses his brother had lit a candle in the apartment earlier in the evening, but was unsure if it led to the tragedy.

Firefighters are reminding people to change the batteries in their smoke detectors twice per year, as the clocks change. The clocks fall back one hour Saturday night.