A sunday morning fire at Restaurant Universel at the corner of St-Denis and Cherrier has shut down a significant portion of St-Denis Street to motorists and pedestrians.
The blaze started in the cellar of the restaurant and spread quickly throughout the buildning, including to residential apartment units on the second and third floors. Fire Department spokespersom, John Primiani, said it started as a three-alarm fire, but grew to five-alarms, which required additional resources.
"There's extra trucks also that are in place. So, we have approximately 135 firefighters that are on the scene," said Primiani.
He said about ten people had to be evacuated, there are no injuries and that neighbouring buildings are not at risk of the fire spreading.
"The other buildings are secure, but there's still a lot of work to be done in that building of three-floors," he added.
St-Denis was closed between Sherbrooke Street and Avenue des Pins. Primiani said that he expects the street closure will remain will remain in effect until early Sunday afternoon.