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The owner of an Old Montreal building, where seven people died in 2023 after it caught fire, is being charged with seven counts of manslaughter.
Émile Benamor, a lawyer and businessman who owns multiple properties in the Montreal area, was arrested this morning and is set to appear this afternoon at the Montreal courthouse.
Benamor is also facing eight counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm.
At a 10 a.m. news conference, Montreal police Insp. David Shane announced the charges and said the family members of the deceased had been informed of Benamor’s arrest.
“We are aware that all of them have been looking for answers for a long time,” he said. “We hope this development can help alleviate their suffering in a small way.”
The charges come nearly three years to the day since the building, a more than 100-year-old heritage property on Place D’Youville, went up in flames.
Many of the 22 people inside the building the night of the fire had been staying in illegal short-term rental units and, prior to the fire, worried renters considered the building a “fire trap.”
The charges laid on Wednesday allege that Benamor was negligent in managing the building. They do not allege he was directly responsible for starting the fire.
Shane said police were still trying to determine who set it. In August 2023, Montreal police announced that the fire had been deliberately set. Investigators said they had found traces of accelerant at the scene.
“Today we are talking about the negligence that accelerated the propagation of the fire and caused the deaths,” Shane said.
Seven people died when a fire broke out at a heritage building in Old Montreal on March 16, 2023. (CBC News)
The fire, which began in the early hours of the morning on March 16, 2023, left seven people dead. Another nine were hospitalized.
The bodies of Charlie Lacroix, 18, Walid Belkahla, 18, An Wu, 31, Dania Zafar, 31, Saniya Khan, 32, Nathan Sears, 35, and Camille Maheux, 76, were recovered from the ruins of the building in the days after the blaze.
The charges against Benamor allege he committed manslaughter in connection with the deaths of all seven victims.
The charges for criminal negligence allege that he caused bodily harm to eight other people injured on the night of the fire.