{"id":422213,"date":"2026-01-22T04:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T04:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/422213\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T04:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T04:53:08","slug":"montreals-jacques-cartier-bridge-closed-after-building-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/422213\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal\u2019s Jacques Cartier Bridge closed after building fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The Jacques Cartier Bridge in Montreal in 2024. The bridge closure is due to heavy smoke and the risk of the building collapsing and falling onto the bridge\u2019s pillars.Christinne Muschi\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Montreal police have taken over an investigation into a building fire that has forced the complete closure of the Jacques Cartier Bridge, a major span to the city\u2019s South Shore.<\/p>\n

A vacant industrial building on the Montreal side of the bridge caught fire Tuesday, with firefighters called to the scene around 11:30 p.m. at the intersection of De Lorimier Avenue and Logan Street. The fire started on the first floor of the three-storey building and spread to the upper floors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Officials with the Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Incorporated \u2013 the federal corporation that manages the bridge \u2013 shut down the span to traffic on Wednesday at 6 a.m. because smoke from the fire was thick and they feared the building would collapse onto the span\u2019s pillars.<\/p>\n

Montreal police spokeswoman Const. Jeanne Drouin said Wednesday that the arson unit had not accessed the scene. Authorities said they didn\u2019t know whether anyone was inside the building at the time of fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor now, what I can tell you is that we are truly investigating a fire of an undetermined nature,\u201d Drouin told reporters.<\/p>\n

Montreal fire department division chief Martin Guilbault said the fire was under control later on Wednesday morning and excavators had arrived on site to knock down the building.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe advertising panels on the roof of the building are our biggest concern right now,\u201d Guilbault said.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday afternoon, the federal bridge authority confirmed two southbound lanes toward the South Shore had been reopened to traffic. The northbound lanes remained closed, as did the walking path in both directions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next steps are to work on demolishing the building, and as soon as we\u2019re sure the structure is safe, we\u2019ll reopen the (bridge) lanes,\u201d Guilbault said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bridge, he said, is a \u201cmajor artery in the city of Montreal. We\u2019re doing everything we can to reopen it as quickly as possible. However, we have to do it safely and make sure we don\u2019t damage the bridge.\u201d<\/p>\n

The building at the foot of the bridge was constructed in 1910 and its location forced the bridge\u2019s architect to design a curve in the span to snake around the structure, according to Heritage Montreal. The building was first occupied by soap manufacturer Joseph Barsalou and it was later occupied by other companies including Procter & Gamble and pharmaceutical firm Familex. It has been vacant for some years and the local borough was studying what to do with the site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: The Jacques Cartier Bridge in Montreal in 2024. The bridge closure is due…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[2428,2416,2429,4,2408,2430,103,2407,2422,2423,2418,2409,2406,101,526,192,2421,2414,2441,2410,2411,2420,2417,149,983,2431,2413,2436,2437,2439,2434,2438,2432,2435,2412,2425,2426,111,2424,2433,79,2415,74,2427,2419,194,965,2440],"class_list":["post-422213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-science","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}