Fire in Parc Extension closes off Jean-Talon

A fire that broke out Friday morning in a commercial building in Parc Extension closed eight blocks of Jean-Talon St. to traffic in both directions. The thoroughfare was closed off between L’Acadie Blvd. and Querbes St. The fire started around 6:30 a.m., Montreal police said. When firefighters arrived, it was declared a three-alarm conflagration. Forty vehicles and 90 firefighters went to the scene. The two-storey building at 690 Jean-Talon St. W. houses a grocery store on the first floor and a mosque on the second. The fire started in the basement but crews were unable to reach it because a stairway had collapsed, the Montreal fire service said.