MONTREAL—A four-year-old girl died in an early-morning cooking fire in Montreal North on Friday.
The fire began in a basement apartment occupied by two parents and four children at 11,956 Matte St. around 6:30 a.m.
The child was found by firefighters under a bed in a state of cardiac arrest. Attempts to revive the girl failed and she was declared dead at hospital at around 8:15 a.m.
“I saw smoke coming from the light fixtures, I got dressed, I panicked and I took my daughter,” said neighbour Kelly Tysick. “At the back of the house there was fire, you could see flames.”
About 20 other residents were evacuated from the eight-unit building but were permitted to return soon after. The danger had been limited to the lower levels of the structure.
One neighbour said she was woken by glass breaking and then heard the piercing wail of smoke detectors.
Rachel Benard knows the family from the depanneur where she works. On Friday morning, she saw the family’s young teenage boy outside the smoke-filled unit with the family dog.
“The boy wanted to break the window to rescues his sister and brothers,” said Benard.
Firefighter Denis Roy later confirmed that the basement unit did not have a working fire detector. Last summer, the building’s owner installed smoke detectors in each unit.
Roy said families should always be equipped with such devices and practice evacuation maneuvers to avoid such tragedies in their own homes.
“You practice evacuating securely and fast, without bringing animals, toys or whatever else,” he said. “You do it without hiding, just moving out to a meeting point. These are important things that a child must learn from their parents.”
Tysick confirmed that her apartment was equipped.
No other injuries were reported.
