“We’re devastated”: Tenants evicted in shock the day after triplex collapse

The spectacular collapse of an apartment building in Montreal has forced tenants living in a neighboring building to evict, fearing they will have to look for new housing at great expense.

The neighborhood was in shock on Tuesday, the day after the disaster.

Francis Dumont, who was evicted from a neighboring building, says he and his roommate don’t know where to go after three nights in a hotel paid for by the Red Cross.

“So we’re pretty broke. We don’t know if we have a place to live. It’s hard to find apartments these days.

Their 7 1/2 month cost is $1275. “It’s impossible to find it at that price.”

The Montreal Fire Protection Service (SIM) was called on Monday at 1:33 p.m. to protect the impressive collapse, which, at least, has the interior of the apartments leaning to the ground.

For sale

Located in the Saint-Henri district and built in 1910, the building has been on the market for $1.3 million for several months and has been completely renovated in recent years.

Two of the three apartments in the destroyed triplex were apparently unable to return there. All four tenants from the neighboring building had to be evicted indefinitely due to fears about the structure of the building. All of them sought help from the Red Cross, the Southwest District said.

Photo from Centris website

“It’s Surreal”

One of them, Peter Panjevac, left his apartment to go for a bike ride when he saw the collapse.

“I saw bricks coming out of the wall one after another. It was surreal. Then I saw the wall crumbling and covered with dust. It was crazy. I went out into the street and found half the building on the ground.

The owner of the collapsed building was overwhelmed with grief The Journal He contacted her on Tuesday.

“The sad thing is that they have lost everything. Everything is in the hole, in plain sight,” summarizes Shade Lavallee.

As Sim suggested on Monday, she suspected a construction site adjacent to her building where work was underway on a new residential multiplex played a role in the incident.

“Most likely it was. A hole was dug 40 feet away and stuck in the foundation of my building. However, the landowner did everything in perfect shape. It was definitely not a straw construction.