MONTREAL — A fierce early-morning blaze which severely damaged the main building of the landmark Le Finlandais spa on Curé-Labelle Blvd. in Île Bélair in the Rosemere district Tuesday appears to have originated in a laundry room, Sgt. Martin Charron of the regional police force said.
The cause hasn’t been determined.
The general-alarm fire severely hampered the morning rush hour in the area, just north of Laval. Traffic along Curé-Labelle, also known as Highway 117, was redirected to Highway 15, resulting in some bottlenecks.
An automatic fire alarm at the Nordic-style spa was triggered about 2:20 a.m., Charron said.
“The general alarm was sounded immediately,” he added. The building was unoccupied at the time.
The blaze was finally declared under control at 7:20 a.m.
Two other buildings in the spa complex were not damaged: “It was the main spa building that burned,” Charron specified.
Charron said two of the roughly 50 firefighters summoned to the scene reported injuries, both minor. “Neither required transport by ambulance” for medical treatment, he said.
The spa is separate from a hotel across the street that also carries the Le Finlandais name.
The hotel wasn’t evacuated. It hasn’t been damaged.
Both the spa and the hotel are owned by Pierre Verville, a businessman with a background in real estate.
Carole Verville, general manager of both the spa and the hotel and Pierre Verville’s sister, declared mid-morning that the damaged part of the spa complex will be rebuilt as quickly as possible.
No damage estimate was available in mid-morning.
Rosemere firefighters were buttressed by forces from Boisbriand, Ste-Thérèse, Lorraine, Bois-des-Filion, Terrebonne, Mirabel and elsewhere across the Lower Laurentians.
Charron discounted “for the moment” the possibility of arson: “We have no indications of that at this time.”
Investigators have been called to the scene.
“The information we have so far is that it came from the (basement) laundry,” Charron said, “but the investigation hasn’t begun.”
Comments