sSeven people are still missing after a fire last Thursday in Montreal, in an illegal Airbnb in the historic district of the Canadian city, the local mayor promising that he will tighten control of this form of accommodation.

Initially, authorities thought only one person was missing. However, it was detected that the historic building, which was affected by the fire, was used by several illegal Airbnbs units, and they updated the number of missing people to seven.

By Sunday evening, the number had dropped to six after authorities found the body of a woman in the rubble.

Some of the missing people, who were housed in the 130-year-old building, are US nationals, reports the Associated Press. The others come from the Quebec region in Canada and the American authorities have already contacted the families.

#Montreal
“At least one person is missing after a five-alarm fire raged through a historic building in Old Montreal on Thursday morning.
The fire broke out around 5:45 a.m. in a building located at the intersection of Place d’Youville and Saint-Nicolas Street.pic.twitter.com/am4pBJBsbT

— Shane B. Murphy (@shanermurph) March 16, 2023

There are still nine people injured, two of them seriously. The cause of the fire is still unknown and no arrests have been made.

On Monday, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante criticized Airbnb, known to operate as a tourist accommodation network around the world, for believing that it was not following the correct regulations regarding the operation. of the building.

“What’s happening here has been a tragedy. Obviously we wouldn’t be in this position if we were dealing with a company that takes its responsibilities seriously and tells these owners that ‘if you don’t have a license , you cannot rent it would force people who act illegally and do not pay taxes not to escape their responsibilities”, defended Plante, quoted by the Associated Press.

Airbnb’s regional manager in Canada assumed he was collaborating with the municipality of Montreal, but did not comment further on the mayor’s criticism.

The building was beyond repair, and Montreal firefighters have already indicated that the building will begin to be dismantled from this Monday, while authorities continue to search for the six victims.

Airbnb rentals are illegal in Old Montreal, where the city has promoted a policy to protect these areas from aggressive exploitation by local lodging and other forms of short-term tourist rentals.

The destroyed building is called the William-Watson-Ogilvie Building and dates from 1890. The alarm system had been renovated in 2019 and was working.

Also read: Airbnb has started banning people close to blocked users