A fire tore through the building that houses Mad Grill restaurant and the company Aventures Neige, located at 850 rue Lalonde, on Sunday, March 22 in the late afternoon. The fire was brought under control towards 11 p.m. We interviewed Mathieu Darmana, director of the Ville de Mont-Tremblant’s Fire Safety Department.

“The Fire Safety Department received a call at 4:44 p.m. indicating that a fire alarm had been triggered,” explains Mr. Darmana. “Passersby subsequently confirmed that flames were coming out of the roof. Everything led us to conclude that the fire started in the kitchen.”

A general alarm was subsequently triggered, allowing the Régie incendie Nord-Ouest as well as the Régie incendie des Monts to be called in order to add reinforcements to the response. In all, 40 firefighters turned out to fight the flames. Municipal police officers maintained a safety perimeter and employees of Hydro Québec and Gaz Métro were also at the scene.

“The first units to arrive on the premises entered the building to spray water where the fire was blazing most fiercely. Unfortunately, the fire was already spreading in the roof space and rapidly reached the back of the building,” Mathieu Darmana notes.

Duty comes first, even during a pandemic

At a time when millions of Québec residents are confined to their homes, these firefighters did not hesitate to face both the fire and the inevitable close interaction with their colleagues.

“For firefighters,” Mathieu Darmana reminds us, “the desire to carry out their duty is more important than anything else. I did not feel any fear on their part with respect to the virus.”

“We follow a very strict protocol,” he adds. “Technically, every firefighter present has to work. It’s very difficult to maintain a distance of one to two metres between firefighters on a fire line. You have to work. You don’t have a choice,” he concludes.

An inquiry is underway to determine the cause of the fire.

Translated from French by Anne Jonhston