Residents in 40-unit Montreal apartment building left in the cold after fire

Montreal Fire Department/Securite incendie Montreal - file photo. (Daniel J. Rowe/CTV News Montreal)

A 40-unit apartment complex in Montreal’s Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough was evacuated after a fire broke out.

A woman in her 70s was hospitalized from smoke inhalation, police say.

According to police, a fire broke out around 8:25 a.m., and the residents of the building on Sherbrooke Street East near Emile-Legrand Aveanue needed to flee their homes Tuesday morning as temperatures dropped below -15 degrees Celsius.

Several units sustained major damage, and the cause of the fire remains unknown, police say.

After sounding a third alarm at 9:15 a.m., the Montreal fire department (SIM) posted on X that the situation was under control two hours later.