google news search got me this:
Employees left jobless as fire devours Plateau pasta place
Arson ruled out; Lombardi gutted; L'Academie next door spared
Restaurant Lombardi, a popular bring-your-own-wine eatery on Duluth St., burned down in less than four hours. (Photograph by : MARCOS TOWNSEND, THE GAZETTE)
ALAN HUSTAK, SIDHARTHA BANERJEE of The Gazette contributed to this report, The Gazette
Published: Saturday, January 13, 2007
Inspectors picked through debris late yesterday trying to determine what caused the early-morning fire that ripped through a landmark Plateau Mont Royal restaurant and reduced it to a pile of rubble.
Restaurant Lombardi, a popular bring-your-own-wine pasta place on Duluth St. just east of St. Denis St., was gutted in less than four hours.
The restaurant, which opened in 1980, placed third in the Montreal Mirror's Best of Poll two years ago as one of the city's five best Italian eateries.
"It had a romantic atmosphere; it attracted a young, hip crowd," said Andrea Tahan, as she watched the ruins of the two-storey, 60-year-old building being bulldozed.
"It was very good. I enjoyed it a lot. I took a bottle of champagne and ate there last week. The big question is what are they going to do with the site?"
Another bystander who lives nearby, but didn't want his name in print, said he was awakened by sirens shortly after 3 a.m. yesterday.
"I thought there was a crime in the neighbourhood," he said.
"I couldn't believe how fast Lombardi's burned. We're so lucky firefighters were able to contain the flames. They could have spread to
L'Academie (a restaurant next door) or to the tenement block directly behind."
Jean-Christophe Trottier, a lawyer for owner Stamathis Koltheras, said the proprietor is devastated by the blaze and is especially concerned about the fate of his employees.
"He's trying to figure out right now how best to help the employees who are without a job," Trottier said.
The fire department estimates the fire caused as much as $1 million in damages.
The fire appears to have started in the basement, spreading quickly to the top floors and the roof, and turning into a general-alarm blaze, fire officials said.
About 125 firefighters were called to the scene, said Sylvain Sevigny a fire department spokesperson.
"We didn't have access to the building when we arrived, so we had to use portable fire ladders to break windows to get inside."
With a risk of collapse, firefighters were forced to battle the blaze from outside.
Fire inspectors do not suspect arson.
It's the second time fire has destroyed a restaurant at the street corner.
In March 1999, a blaze swept through the neighbouring L'Academie restaurant and a Societe des alcools du Quebec store, causing about $1 million in damage.
This time, however, L'Academie only sustained smoke and other minor damage. It should open again in a few days, manager Mamoun Awad said.
"They broke down the wall," said Awad, who admitted having a sense of panic when he heard about the blaze.
"I was nervous. My heart was pounding fast," Awad said.
ahustak@thegazette.canwest.com
© The Gazette (Montreal) 2007
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