No return date in sight for Montreal tenants evacuated when building next door partially collapsed
Borough issued a demolition order for the building about a year ago
Had Mikaela Germani returned home from work at her regular hour last Monday, and relaxed on her couch as she usually does, she likely wouldn't be alive today.
That's what Montreal firefighters told a shaken Germani after the partial collapse of the building next to her Mile End apartment sent a deluge of bricks into her living room.
"The window was completely gone ... the force of the bricks was so hard that it actually got pushed out of its frame and bricks came all the way up to my table," she said pointing to the opposite side of the room.
"I would've been here when it happened."
A week later, the precarious building at 5990 Park Ave. continues to stand — despite a year-old demolition order.
Having been forced to evacuate their own building, tenants next door at 5998 Park Ave. say they're scrambling for alternative accommodation with no return date in sight.
Amanda Solomon, who lived above Germani, watched the wall come down from her couch.
After her building was condemned, she packed a backpack, expecting to return in 48 hours, like the firefighters had initially told her.
She would've been better off carrying a suitcase.
With the wait to return home going well past two days, she's had to come back to her unit to gather more items.
"It's just shocking to me that they haven't done anything about it yet," Solomon said. "The fact that it looks exactly the same out there as it did when I saw it crumble is just a little bit crazy to me."
Guy Lapointe, a division chief with the Montreal fire department, said he assumed the borough would act swiftly following the partial collapse of the building wall.
"It will either be demolished or stabilized, but as long as one of those scenarios doesn't happen, this building [at 5998 Park Ave.] is at risk," Lapointe said.
"So as long as the problem isn't solved, people won't be able to return."
Demolition process launched in 2023 — then stalled
For months, the outer wall of 5990 Park Ave. had been bulging, swelling over the heads of the next-door tenants who walked alongside it daily to reach the main entrance of their own building.
Germani says it was a "one-in-a-million chance" that nobody got hurt that day. That includes the firefighters who happened to be there inspecting the security fence they'd installed around the precarious building a year ago.
According to a statement sent by the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough, the owner of 5990 Park Ave. submitted a demolition request in May 2023. But when the borough asked for additional documents, the owner abandoned the process.
In March 2024, Montreal's fire department ordered a precautionary evacuation of the building and erected a fence around the property.
The borough, for its part, issued its own demolition order. It says the property owner co-operated until June 2024 and then stopped answering messages.
"The owner has not responded to the latest communications initiated by the borough," the borough wrote in a statement.
It says it has deployed "considerable" efforts to incite the owner to proceed with the building demolition.
"There are many buildings in Montreal that have been abandoned, that are derelict," said Germani. "This is not an isolated case, and I wonder what the ultimate action will be in order to ensure that this doesn't happen again."
Stranded tenants remain in limbo.
Germani's insurance is helping her through this but other tenants like Solomon whose units weren't damaged don't have that support.
"[Relocation's] tricky," Solomon said. "I don't know who's responsibility it is specifically — but I would like it to be someone's."
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With files from Paula Dayan-Perez