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Pointe-aux-Trembles fire kills man, forces people out of 15 apartments

Fire tore through the third floor of this building. Police are trying to find the exact cause. Billy Shields/Global News

A fire early Tuesday morning killed a Pointe-aux-Trembles man in his 60s and caused firefighters to evacuate 15 apartments.

Police have not released the name of the man who was killed in the fire, but residents of the building say he was Jean-Paul Simard, who lived on the third floor.

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Clifford Simpson, a neighbour, said Simard had gone to a party the night before.

“He was drunk,” Simpson said. “We brought him back to his house and put him on the couch. And the next thing we knew the fire had started.”

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Simard was divorced and leaves behind a daughter and son, Simpson said.

He was a cigarette smoker.

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Most of the damage was confined to the third floor.

By late morning, most residents on the bottom two floors of the building on the corner of St-Jean-Baptiste and Montigny had re-entered their homes.

Fire tore through the third floor of this building. Police are trying to find the exact cause. Billy Shields/Global News

Though the fire department transferred the investigation to the police department, the SPVM currently believes the fire was accidental.

An autopsy to determine Simard’s exact cause of death is scheduled for later this week.

Police are also investigating the cause of the blaze.

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