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The owner of an Old Montreal building where seven people died in a 2023 fire is being charged with seven counts of manslaughter.
Émile Benamor, a 63-year-old lawyer and businessman who owns multiple properties in the Montreal area, was arrested this morning and is set to appear this afternoon at the Montreal courthouse.
Benamor is also facing eight counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm.
At a 10 a.m. news conference, Montreal police Chief-Insp. David Shane announced the charges and said the family members of the deceased had been informed of Benamor’s arrest.
“We are aware that all of them have been looking for answers for a long time,” he said. “We hope this development can help alleviate their suffering in a small way.”
The charges come nearly three years to the day since the building, a more than 100-year-old heritage property on Place D’Youville, went up in flames.
Many of the 22 people inside the building the night of the fire had been staying in illegal short-term rental units and, prior to the fire, worried renters considered the building a “fire trap.”
The charges laid on Wednesday allege that Benamor was negligent in managing the building. They do not allege he was directly responsible for starting the fire.
Shane said investigators were still trying to determine who set it. Montreal police said in August 2023 they had found traces of accelerant at the scene.
“Today we are talking about the negligence that accelerated the propagation of the fire and caused the deaths,” Shane said.
The fire, which began in the early hours of the morning on March 16, 2023, left seven people dead. Another nine were hospitalized.
“We will never forget the five women and two men who perished in the fire,” Shane said.
The bodies of Charlie Lacroix, 18, Walid Belkahla, 18, An Wu, 31, Dania Zafar, 31, Saniya Khan, 32, Nathan Sears, 35, and Camille Maheux, 76, were recovered from the ruins of the building in the days after the blaze.
The charges against Benamor allege he committed manslaughter in connection with the deaths of all seven victims. The charges for criminal negligence allege that he caused bodily harm to eight other people injured on the night of the fire.
The fatal fire put a spotlight on illegal short-term rentals in the city and led former mayor Valérie Plante to promise a crack down.
Who is Émile Benamor?
Property records show Benamor owns more than a dozen buildings, many of them rental properties, across the Montreal-area.
Even before the 2023 fire, Benamor had drawn the attention of authorities. He was convicted of fire code violations at multiple properties and his law licence was limited in 2021 after he pleaded guilty to tax evasion in connection with a fraud scheme.
In October 2024, a different Old Montreal building owned by Benamor, located at the corner of Notre-Dame and Bonsecours streets, went up in flames. Two people, a mother and seven-year-old child died in that fire, which was also deliberately set.
Police arrested two men, Justin Fortier-Trahan, 20, and Juventino Hernandez Pelaez, 18, in connection with that fire. They have been charged with murder and arson. They will next appear in court in May.
Montreal police have concluded their investigation into that fire and do not believe there was any criminal negligence involved, Shane said.
In the days after the 2024 fire, however, three young men fired shots at Benamor’s law offices. Then, a car was set on fire in the driveway at his West Island home.