Quebec heritage site, former home of renowned artist, destroyed by fire – Montreal [Video]

A Quebec heritage site on the Island of Montreal that was the former home of a renowned artist has been destroyed in a fire.

A Montreal fire department spokesperson says it took some 40 firefighters about five hours to extinguish the blaze that began Sunday night at the vacant residence in the on-island suburb of Kirkland.

The former home belonged to Charles Daudelin, a well-known sculptor and painter whose art has been displayed in Ottawa, Quebec, Montreal, Charlottetown and Paris.

“It’s a great loss for Kirkland,” said Mayor Michel Gibson. “It was part of our heritage.”

Built beginning in 1951 and later enlarged, the flat-roofed, cedar-clad building, as well as its stand-alone studio, was Daudelin’s home and workplace for some 50 years until his death in 2001. It was built from plans designed by Charles Elliott Trudeau, an architect who was the brother of former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

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