West Island community reeling after fire rips through prominent funeral home | CBC News

Leah Gilmore says she feels like she has lost her parents all over again.

Her parents’ urns were among those in the Collins Clarke MacGillivray White funeral home just off Highway 20 in Pointe-Claire, Que., when it went up in flames Wednesday.

Montreal’s fire service is investigating the incident as the independent municipality is an on-island suburb of the city.

Thursday morning, the smell of smoke still lingered in the crisp air as a light snow blanketed the remnants of a building that goes back about six decades — and had become somewhat of a community landmark for not just Pointe-Claire, but the whole West Island, said Gilmore.

“Anyone that mentions the funeral home, this is the key one,” she said.

For Ken Crawford, the fire brought old memories to the surface. He lost his wife 20 years ago and her urn was in the funeral home’s columbarium.

“She passed away at the beginning of December, so November is a tough month for our family,” he said.

The fire broke out just after 2 p.m. Wednesday, and 70 firefighters were called to the scene. The exact cause is still not known, but the fire service says it doesn’t appear to have been criminal.

For now, the investigation is ongoing, and it’s not clear how long that will take.

Robert Rousseau, a section chief, said it’s hard to determine the fire’s cause because of the extent of the damage.

“So our investigators have to rule out anything that could have caused the fire to find out the proper cause,” he said.

The building is severely damaged and partially collapsed. 

The funeral home management was on site early Thursday, but declined to do an interview with CBC News. They said firefighters have taken them on a tour of the building, but they are still waiting for the results of the investigation to understand what happened.

As for people like Gilmore and Crawford, they hope their loved ones’ urns are still intact.

Gilmore said her family had planned to visit her parents’ urns next week, specifically to leave a poinsettia and “come and say hello.”

“It was always open so we could always come and see,” she said. “Now it’s taken from us.”

On Facebook, Pointe-Claire Mayor Tim Thomas said he was was saddened to learn of the fire.

He said the funeral home served several generations of Pointe-Claire citizens “in their time of need and is an important part of our community.”

“My thoughts are with the employees, owners and the families whose loved ones’ remains were housed in the columbarium,” he said.