Firefighters battle a fire in Old Montreal on Friday, Oct.4, 2024. Montreal police say they've arrested two suspects in connection with a fatal Old Montreal fire that claimed the lives of two French nationals earlier this month. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz
MONTREAL – Police say two men, aged 18 and 20, have been arrested in connection with a fire in Old Montreal last week that claimed the lives of two French nationals.
Cmdr. Jean-Sébastien Caron of the Montreal police said the 20-year-old is suspected of throwing an incendiary device into the building on Oct. 4, starting a fire that quickly spread from the ground floor to the upper two levels where there was a hostel. Léonor Geraudie, 43, and her seven-year-old daughter Vérane Reynaud Geraudie died in the fire.
The 18-year-old suspect allegedly drove the getaway vehicle, Caron said, adding that both men are known to police.
The investigation is continuing, he said, as police want to find out who ordered the two men to set the Notre-Dame Street East building on fire. Without giving details, he said police know someone else is calling the shots, “and we want to get this person.”
Both suspects are detained, he said, while Crown prosecutors study the file and decide on charges, which should come within the next 24 hours.
“We treated this case as a murder case from the beginning,” Insp. David Shane told reporters Friday. “But the decision (on charges) will be made by the prosecutor.”
Police said that when fire broke out there were 25 people inside the building, which housed a restaurant and wine bar on the ground floor and a 19-room hostel above.
The fire was the second deadly blaze in the historic neighbourhood in less than two years, after a March 2023 fire in a building that housed short-term rentals killed seven people.
City records list both buildings as belonging to the same owner – Emile Benamor – and police have said they suspect arson in both cases. Caron said Friday that Benamor is co-operating with the investigation into both fires.
Earlier this week, another building owned by Benamor in the same neighbourhood was hit by gunfire. Three people, including two teenagers, were arrested shortly after. Neither Caron nor Shane would say on Friday whether the three suspects are tied to the two men arrested for the Oct. 4 fire.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2024.
