There were no injuries as dozens of Montreal firefighters were dispatched on Wednesday morning to an especially smoky fire on Parc. Ave., just south of Milton St.
The R.S. Muir and Co. building, at 3464 Parc, was built in 1875, and once housed a coffeeshop on the ground floor, but has since been abandoned and was regularly occupied by squatters.
There were combustible materials inside, according to the fire chief.
It wasn't clear if squatters started the general alarm fire.
Three families had to be forced from neighboring buildings.
Montreal police confirmed the building was broken into as recently as two days ago.
Eyewitness Angie Biron noticed smoke in the air around 8:30 a.m.
“It started out not that big, but maybe an hour or so later, the smoke was huge,” she told CTV News Channel.
“The sky was just grey.
-With files from CTV