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3 dead after fire blazes through Longueuil apartment building

Click to play video: 'Police investigate Longueuil fire'
Police investigate Longueuil fire
WATCH ABOVE: Three people are dead after a four-alarm fire raged through an apartment complex in Longueuil. Global's Billy Shields reports – May 13, 2016

LONGUEUIL – Three people are dead after a four-alarm fire raged through an apartment complex in Longueuil.

It broke out just before 2 a.m. on Terrasse Turgeon Street.

The blaze intensified and spread through the three-storey building after a back wall collapsed, causing a gas leak.

About 20 residents were trapped in their homes and had to be rescued from their balconies with ladders.

“There is no word I can use to describe what they are going through,” said Lynn Doyon, Director General of Carrefour Mousseau, a non-profit organization located across the street from the apartment building.

WATCH: Raw footage as a four-alarm fire blazes through an apartment complex in Longueuil.
Click to play video: 'RAW: Longueuil four-alarm fire'
RAW: Longueuil four-alarm fire

Doyon said that area of Longueuil is particularly impoverished and the victims are devastated.

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“All they own was left to burn. They have no insurance. They barely have anything to eat,” she told Global News.

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Three children and five adults were treated for shock and smoke inhalation.

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