The four-year old girl who was in critical condition after the Lachine fire that killed two others in early November has died, Montreal police confirmed on Tuesday.
Police spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant told Global News the young victim passed away on Friday, Dec. 6, after being in critical condition for four weeks.
The fire happened on Nov. 8 just after 11 p.m. in a 51-unit apartment building on Duffcourt Street, in Montreal’s Lachine borough.
Firefighters found three people unconscious on the scene: a 40-year-old woman, an eight-year-old girl and a four-year-old girl.
Authorities said all three victims were immediately rushed to the hospital, where the 40-year-old and the eight-year-old died from smoke inhalation.
There were also two 13-year-old twin boys in the apartment who jumped from the second-floor balcony. They suffered minor injuries and were brought to the hospital. Everyone else in the building was evacuated and there were no other injuries.
Police confirmed that the 40-year-old woman was the mother of all four children.
Police said the case was transferred to the arson unit, where investigators found the fire was likely caused by a discarded cigarette left burning.
Operations chief Matthew Griffith said the fire required 70 firefighters to be called to the scene.
Griffith said there was a smoke alarm in the apartment, but they couldn’t determine whether it was functional or not due to the severe damages from the blaze.
— With files from The Canadian Press