Historic BonPasteur monastery in downtown Montreal catches fire

The Monastère du Bon-Pas‐ teur, a monastery in Mon‐ treal that dates back near‐ ly two centuries, caught fire on Thursday and fire‐ fighters continued to bat‐ tle the fire on Friday morn‐ ing.

A spokesperson for Mon‐ treal's fire service says emer‐ gency services were called Thursday at around 4:30 p.m. More than 100 firefight‐ ers were called to the scene.

The five-alarm fire is main‐ ly burning in the roof but it is difficult to fight because of the size and complexity of the building, Émilie BarbeauCharlevoix, a spokesperson for the Montreal fire depart‐ ment, said in an interview.

An Urgences-Santé spokesperson said two peo‐ ple were treated for minor in‐ juries, a firefighter and a man in his 80s, who was found overnight in a part of the building that was not on fire. He was suffering from hy‐ pothermia, according to Bar‐ beau-Charlevoix.

It's not clear yet how ex‐ tensive the damage will be to the monastery, but the fire department said they believe the building will not be a total loss.

Smoke could still be seen from around the city on Friday morning. The historic building is located on Sher‐ brooke Street between de Bullion and St-Dominique streets.

WATCH | Watch crews work to extinguish the fire:

Environment Canada is‐ sued a special air quality statement, warning of in‐ creased pollution in Montreal because of the smoke.

"Individuals may experi‐ ence symptoms such as in‐ creased coughing, throat irri‐ tation, headaches or short‐ ness of breath," the agency's statement said.

"Children, seniors, and those with cardiovascular or lung disease, such as asthma, are especially at risk. People with lung diseases, such as asthma and COPD, can be particularly sensitive to air pollution."

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante urged people to avoid the area on Twitter. "It is still too early to see the damage to the precious heritage build‐ ing," she said.

The monastery was built in 1846. The freestone building has a central body that is crossed by three perpendicu‐ lar wings. A presbytery was added in 1896.

It was built to accommo‐ date the activities of the sis‐ ters of Notre-Dame du BonPasteur d'Angers. According to Héritage Montréal, the monastery, like McGill Univer‐ sity a little further west, was among the first public institu‐ tions established along Sher‐ brooke Street. Héritage Mon‐ tréal also has its offices in the building.

The monastery retained its religious vocation until the 1960s.

It was designated a her‐ itage building in 1979. It was then acquired in 1984 by the Société immobilière du patrimoine architectural de Montréal (SIMPA).

The monastery now serves as a multi-service centre that includes a seniors' resi‐ dence, a housing co-opera‐ tive, a daycare and condo‐ miniums. About 20 people are being cared for by the Canadi‐ an Red Cross.

Héritage Montréal spokesperson Anthony Payá said organization em‐ ployees were in the building when everybody inside was ordered to clear out.

"A lot of smoke. We saw the firemen coming," he said. "We feel very sad because at Héritage Montréal we work with heritage every day and we see buildings on fire, like the one in Old Montreal, every week."

Watching the very building they work in catch on fire is a tragedy, he said.

Eileen MacKinnon lives in the building. She said she was shopping when she saw smoke coming out of the cen‐ tre of the structure, and then it travelled along the roof.

"Now it has spread and it is coming out the main vents," she said on Thursday, indicating the fire ap‐ peared to be working its way over to some of the residen‐ tial units.

She said it is sad to see the historic building damaged. It's a lively space, she said, with music in the chapel regularly and an art gallery.

"There are no words," MacKinnon said.