{"id":838191,"date":"2026-07-31T13:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T13:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/838191\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T13:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T13:14:09","slug":"suspect-sought-after-suspicious-fire-at-empty-montreal-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/838191\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspect sought after suspicious fire at empty Montreal building"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Montreal police are investigating a suspicious fire at an unoccupied residential and commercial building in the city\u2019s Villeray\u2014Saint-Michel\u2014Parc-Extension borough.<\/p>\n<p>Police received several 911 calls around 2 a.m. Friday about a fire on Jean-Talon Street near Pie-IX Boulevard.<\/p>\n<p>Officers arrived to find Montreal firefighters already on scene working to control the flames. Several nearby residents were evacuated as a precaution.<\/p>\n<p>Police say the building sustained minor damage and no injuries were reported.<\/p>\n<p>A suspect was reportedly seen at the scene but fled before police arrived.<\/p>\n<p>The SPVM\u2019s arson squad has taken over the investigation. A security perimeter was established while investigators examined the scene and worked to preserve evidence.<\/p>\n<p>Police say they have interviewed witnesses and are looking for surveillance footage. No arrests have been made.<\/p>\n<p>\t\tKeep it Factual<\/p>\n<p>Add CityNews Montreal as a trusted source on Google to see more local stories from us.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=montreal.citynews.ca\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"add-trusted-source-badge\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782077411_500_google-trusted-badge.png\" alt=\"Add as a preferred source on Google\" width=\"198\" height=\"63\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Montreal police are investigating a suspicious fire at an unoccupied residential and commercial building in the city\u2019s Villeray\u2014Saint-Michel\u2014Parc-Extension&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":838192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-838191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}