Daycare staff shocked by apparent arson

MONTREAL, Que. – A couple of charred baby cribs, along with a highchair and wooden rocking chair, sat outside a Pierrefonds daycare Tuesday in the aftermath of a suspicious fire that caused major damage and has parents scrambling.

Arson investigators were combing the scene as Debora Jolly, director of the Le Petit Castel daycare, stood on the soot-covered ice with two of the centre’s 12 employees. The Gouin Blvd. daycare had 70 children in its charge, ranging in age from 6 months to 5 years.

The fire, which began overnight, was under control before 6 a.m. No one was injured.

The fire was concentrated at the front of the two-storey building that housed the daycare. A dance studio, along with a machine shop and sign company, all annexed to the back of the building, were only slightly damaged, mostly by smoke.

"I’m in shock," Jolly, who has been in charge of the daycare since 2003, said just before going to talk to fire officials. "The only thing I can be thankful for is that no one was hurt."

Jolly would not name the daycare’s owner.

Two educators stood close to one another, looking at what was left of their workplace.

"It was more than a job," said one of them, who spoke on condition that her name not be published. "There was a special bond with the children and the other educators … it was a second family."

Despite the devastation to the building, there was a glimmer of hope that the daycare might open again soon.

Pierrefonds/Roxboro councillor Christian G. Dubois arrived at the scene to speak with Jolly about the possibility of offering her temporary quarters at the local community centre.

"We can’t promise anything right now, but we’re hoping that we can find some place in the community centre where the daycare could operate, at least until they find more permanent quarters," Dubois said.

Jolly welcomed the offer.

"We’ll make it, one step at a time," she said. "If not at the community centre, at least temporarily, then we’ll find somewhere else."

Meanwhile, parents are trying to figure out what to do.

"I’m so sad, it was such a wonderful place," Lida Ahadi said as she stood behind the police tape with her 4-year-old son, Stylianos, who stared wide-eyed at the charred building.

Ahadi, who works at the Fairview Pointe Claire shopping centre, is scheduled to return to her job tomorrow.

"I’m so confused about what to do," she said, adding that she has no one to care for her son while she is at work. "Daycare spaces are not easy to come by … and we loved this place."

Another parent, Maria Pace, said she is fortunate she does not work outside the home.

"But the daycare was like a second home to my children," she said. Her 5-and 8-yearolds attended the daycare in the past, and her 3-year-old daughter still did.

"I have children with severe allergies, and the daycare was so great about that," she added. "We could never have found better."

Finding another daycare won’t be easy.

"Most CPEs are booked to the max," explained Luisa Iglio, director of the Centre de la Petite Enfance Dorval, a $7-a-day government daycare with 65 spots.

"Our waiting list is three years long. It’s rare to find a spot in a CPE -no almost impossible -even if it’s only temporary."

"We feel for those parents."

Jean Leblanc, chief of operations for the Montreal fire department, said it took 60 firefighters almost three hours to get the fire, which started at 2:30 a.m., under control.

Leblanc said the fire is considered suspicious because of the speed with which it grew.

The fire spread quickly from the first floor to the second to the roof. Leblanc said firefighters did not find traces of accelerants, and he was unable to confirm reports that firefighters who first arrived on the scene detected an odd odour.

Leblanc said firefighters reported that the daycare’s front window had been smashed. "But for now, we can’t say if that was deliberate or if it was caused by the fire itself."

Luc Seguin, owner of the building, said he had no idea why anyone might have deliberately started the fire.

"We have no enemies," he said. He estimated the damages to be about $400,000.

Leblanc said investigators will determine whether there are any links between yesterday’s fire and two other suspicious fires in Pierrefonds in recent months:

On Nov. 15, Boutique Cellulaire, located in a Pierrefonds Blvd. strip mall, was set ablaze with the use of accelerants. The next day, the Marche Shifa food store on Sources Blvd. was destroyed by what police believe was arson.