Quebec’s chief coroner has ordered a public inquiry into the deaths of two people who died in a major fire in Old Montreal last week.
Coroner Reno Bernier ordered the inquiry at the request of Public Security Minister François Bonnardel.
Léonor Geraudie, 43, and her seven-year-old daughter Vérane Reynaud-Geraudie, who were French nationals, died inside a three-storey, 100-year-old building on Notre-Dame Street when a suspicious fire broke out early Friday morning.
The building housed a restaurant on the main floor and a hostel upstairs.
Coroner Géhane Kamel will preside over the inquiry, which will make recommendations, where appropriate, to prevent further deaths in similar circumstances.
Kamel is also overseeing the inquiry ordered into another fatal fire that killed seven people in Old Montreal in March 2023.
That inquiry was ordered in April 2023, but has been delayed due to the ongoing criminal investigation.
Given the similarities of the two inquiries, Kamel could eventually decide to combine them, a news release from the coroner’s office reads.
The terms of the inquiry and hearings will be set in accordance with the law, ensuring that the ongoing judicial processes in these two cases are not compromised, the release says.