Fears about fate of Montreal heritage buildings grow after NDG church catches fire

The smell of smoke lingered in the air the day after Trinity Anglican Memorial Church went up in flames. Workers hammered in planks of wood, barricading the doors and windows to prevent a future blaze while a private developer proceeds with a plan to convert the building — and what remains of its charred interior — into a residential project. 

The pews were abandoned years ago when the church closed its doors in 2017. More than a house of worship, the basement also housed the NDG Food Depot, a community food bank. Built in 1922, the church was dedicated as a memorial to soldiers who had died in the First World War.

On Tuesday night, a fire erupted in the church, one of the vacant heritage buildings in the Montreal neighbourhood of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. The exterior is mostly unscathed, but the building's interior bore the brunt of the damage. 

Nobody was reported injured, but initial reports suggest arson and an investigation into the cause of the fire is underway, according to Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM).

While the SPVM is investigating the cause of the fire, questions remain about the safety of vacant heritage buildings in NDG after several of Montreal's heritage buildings burned down in recent months. 

Peter McQueen, city councillor of Notre-Dame district, said he heard about the fire on Facebook and rushed to the scene to find firefighters battling the flames. He wasn't alone. The owner of the building and his architect were also present, and the owner assured him the project would still be moving forward after years of sitting vacant, said McQueen,

"We're hoping this owner gets moving quicker rather than slower into getting this into a project that is moving forward," said McQueen. 

According to the councillor, the owner presented an initial plan to save the church's exterior and transform the interior into offices and a medical clinic, with an extension to the building in the form of a five-storey condo — while keeping the green space along the property.

"It saves the outside architecture of the church. It creates green space for the community," he said. But the fire has left the councillor concerned about the safety of other heritage buildings sitting empty in the neighbourhood. 

"We're always concerned about fires and especially in abandoned buildings. So we have inspectors coming around checking our buildings are boarded up. There were complaints on this building in the last months, both graffiti on it, which clearly did get cleaned up and barricading issues, which we did reinforce," he said.

In a statement, the borough of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce told CBC it has inspected Trinity's barricades 30 times since 2018.

The borough said it spoke with the owner dozens of times and sent him three notices to barricade the building, but it has not resorted to fining him because he has "quickly rectified the situation" in each instance. The owner also received a notice after the fire.

A total of 53 buildings are vacant in the borough, it said.

Pierre Barrieau, President of Gris Orange Consultant, is consulting on the project. Barrieau told CBC that on several occasions people have removed the plywood barricades and entered the building, forcing the developer to contact the authorities. 

As for the extent of the damage, that still needs to be assessed. 

Plans are still proceeding, however since the initial project was presented to McQueen and NDG's elected officials, the developer is now focused on turning the church into residential units and spaces for local community organizations.

The developer began working on the project about four years ago, and it will be another few years before he receives approval and begins building, Barrieau said.

"This is a large-scale project," he said. "We are following a relatively typical timeline."

The dangers of vacancy 

Montreal is home to hundreds of vacant heritage buildings, an issue Heritage Montreal has been raising for decades, says Taïka Baillargeon, the organization's assistant policy director.

The city of Montreal estimates that about 800 buildings on its territory are abandoned, and about 150 of those are heritage properties.

Baillargeon points out several fires have erupted in heritage buildings over the past few months. One that made headlines was a deadly fire in Old Montreal. That building was in use although there had been complaints about its safety.

An old building that stays vacant is even more fragile, and the longer it stays vacant the more difficult to renovate and potentially dangerous it becomes, Baillargeon explained. 

"Vacancy comes with a lot of different impacts that are bad for the building itself, for the community around, for the buildings that are around as well, because it's a bit like a rotten apple in a basket. It's going to touch the neighborhood as well," she said.

With dwindling attendance, churches — many of which have been abandoned — are costly to maintain, making them particularly at risk, according to Baillargeon.

"They need attention. They need maintenance … love, money, care. This is really what they need," said Baillargeon. "The best way to keep a building in shape is to inhabit it."

In May, the city unveiled a new bylaw, increasing the fines for owners of heritage building owners who fail to properly maintain their properties.

Under the proposed law, owners would also be forced to pay an annual fee to register vacant properties, allowing the city to better keep track of those buildings.

The city held public consultations on the bylaw on June 6. The bylaw could take effect as early as the end of this year.