Montreal police say the last two victims of a deadly fire that ripped through an Old Montreal heritage building have been found — bringing the total of dead recovered to seven.
Insp. David Shane said Monday afternoon that the bodies retrieved from the rubble of the 15-unit, multi-use building that went up in flames March 16 will be sent to a laboratory to be formally identified.
Police said a Quebec coroner also confirmed Monday the identity of four more victims: Dania Zafar, 32, Saniya Khan, 32, Nathan Sears, 35, and An Wu, 31.
Last Wednesday, police confirmed the identity of the first victim whose body was found as 76-year-old Camille Maheux.
Montreal fire operations chief Martin Guilbault said a team of search dogs began helping on Saturday. A border collie and a German shephed helped find the fifth body on Saturday as well as the last two on Monday.
“We could not use the dogs before because of the instability of the building and the risk of collapse,” Guilbault said.
He says there is no reason to believe there are other victims in the rubble and that the fire department will now focus on trying to determine the cause of the fire.
