Quebec coroner orders public inquiry into Old Montreal fire that killed mother, daughter | CBC News
Quebec’s chief coroner has ordered a public inquiry into the deaths of two people who died in a major fire in Old Montreal last week.
Coroner Reno Bernier ordered the inquiry at the request of Public Security Minister François Bonnardel.
Léonor Geraudie, 43, and her seven-year-old daughter Vérane Reynaud-Geraudie, who were French nationals, died inside a three-storey, 100-year-old building on Notre-Dame Street when a suspicious fire broke out early Friday morning.
The building housed a restaurant on the main floor and a hostel upstairs.
This is the second coroner’s inquiry into a suspicious fire at an Old Montreal building in just over a year and a half. In March 2023, a fire in a building on Place D’Youville killed seven people. Both buildings at the heart of the inquiries are owned by Émile-Haim Benamor.
The first inquiry was ordered in April 2023, but has been delayed due to the ongoing criminal investigation.
Coroner Géhane Kamel is presiding over both inquiries, which will make recommendations, where appropriate, to prevent further deaths in similar circumstances.
Given their similarities, Kamel could eventually decide to combine the two, a news release from the coroner’s office reads.
The terms of the inquiries and hearings will ensure that the ongoing judicial processes in these two cases are not compromised, the release says.
