Fire safety teams close terraces on first night of Grand Prix weekend

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Some merchants are outraged after fire-prevention officers ordered several downtown restaurants to shut down their packed terrasses Friday evening — the busiest point of the first night of Montreal’s Grand Prix weekend.

Sandra Ferreira, director of operations of Ferreira Café, a popular seafood restaurant on Peel St., near de Maisonneuve Blvd., posted an emotional video on Instagram after she was ordered to suddenly evacuate guests from the packed terrasse.

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“I’m trying to get a hold of myself,” a tearful Ferreira says on the video. “It’s Friday night of the Grand Prix, it’s 9 o’clock, and the firefighters decide to come to Ferreira to tell us our terrasse does not conform. … I find it so cruel that they … come to us on a night when the restaurant is full, and tell me in front of all these people, and I couldn’t take it and I burst into tears, which is really not my style if you know me. … This weekend, I am ashamed. I am ashamed for my city, ashamed that that happened in front of our clients.”

She said a dozen “firefighters” — they were actually fire-prevention officers — surrounded the outdoor seating area and ordered her to evacuate and close the terrasse, for which, she noted, her business had paid $40,000. When she asked what would happen if she did not evacuate the terrasse, they told her they would close the entire restaurant.

Ferreira went on to say she had obtained a permit from the city to put a canopy over the restaurant’s terrasse. Several businesses in the downtown core have chosen to use these canopies, which have flaps that can be rolled down to protect customers from wind, rain or dust from nearby construction.

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Unlike other years when Peel St. has been closed to vehicular traffic to host part of the Grand Prix festivities, the street this year remains open to traffic because Ste-Catherine St. is closed for repairs and emergency vehicles need access.

Ferreira said she and other restaurateurs on the street had worked hard to comply with the city’s rules about terrasses. A few weeks ago, a city inspector told her the terrasse could not extend into the street further than the parking lane. She said they made adjustments, bringing the canopy closer to the building.

But then a week or two ago, she said, fire-prevention officers came by and told her the canopy over the terrasse had to be at least three metres from the building.

“We tried to explain our side, that we had our permit, that we had special permission from the city of Montreal. Finally, we spoke to the city, and I understood that it was OK.”

But Guy Lapointe, a spokesperson for the Montreal Fire Department’s fire-prevention service (SIM), said officers had no choice but to close down several downtown terrasses, including four on Peel St., and others on Crescent and Notre-Dame Sts., on Friday evening as they conducted their regular safety blitz, dubbed “Sentinelle.”

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He explained this safety operation is carried out four times a year — during the Bal en Blanc winter festival, the Grand Prix, Halloween and Christmas holidays — all times when restaurants and bars tend to be overcrowded and certain safety rules tend to be flouted. The Sentinelle blitz is mainly to ensure establishments with alcohol licenses respect their maximum capacity rules during special events; any decorations they may have installed are treated with fire retardant; and fire exits are clear.

Lapointe said SIM officials had warned the restaurants in question the canopies over their terrasses had to be at least three metres from the buildings to prevent fire from spreading from the building to the terrasse or vice versa.

“A week and a half ago, the prevention officers met with the proprietors and informed them the canopy wasn’t following the rules,” Lapointe said. “They got a permit from the city, yes, but it’s not because you got a permit you can set it up any way you want. You have to respect the rules. In their case, in past years because the street was closed, the terrasse could go farther onto the street. Hence, they would have the three metres from the canopy” to the building, he said. “This year, the street isn’t closed, so they can’t go past the parking area, so I’m assuming when they set it up to respect that, what they did is put the canopy closer to the building.”

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Lapointe said inspectors visited the restaurants and explained they had two options — remove the canopy, or replace it with a smaller one to respect the rules.

“So, yesterday, we were not there specifically for that. We were conducting our operation, but during our operation we noticed they didn’t do the modifications we asked them to do. So given the fact the terrasse was full, given the fact of the fire risk, we had no other choice but to close down the terrasse.”

The restaurants were fined about $1,300 for the canopy distance violations, Lapointe said. He noted it is not a permanent closing order, and as soon as the restaurants make the modifications, they can resume operating their terrasses.

He said there must have been some miscommunication with the city officials, but the SIM “can’t give any kind of leeway. Imagine if yesterday the prevention officers would have said: ‘Well, listen, we understand it’s a busy evening, we will give you until Monday morning.’ And let’s say a fire breaks out. Now, this morning, I would be giving all these interviews trying to explain why the fire department didn’t respect its own rules and we had people die in a fire last night. You understand, it’s a catch-22 for us.”

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Glenn Castanheira, executive director of the downtown business group SDC Montréal centre-ville, said the canopy issue should have and could have been resolved before the safety blitz.

“We are concerned with the approach used by the fire marshals,” he said. “It seems a bazooka was used to kill a fruit fly.”

Castanheira said if the fire department was aware of the safety hazard posed by terrasse canopies being too close to buildings, they could have sent a couple of inspectors over to the restaurants on a quiet morning, a few days after they gave the restaurants a warning.

Abdelhaq Sari, spokesperson for the official opposition at city hall on public safety issues, blamed the terrace shutdowns on poor communication and a lack of leadership in the downtown borough. Valérie Plante serves as mayor of the downtown borough as well as city mayor.

“Beyond the question of bad timing, I question the lack of leadership of the Ville-Marie borough, led by Plante,” Sari posted on social media. “Where is the consultation with all the stakeholders that the mayor is talking about?”

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On Saturday afternoon, Plante responded to The Gazette’s request for comment.

“We were all moved by the testimony of the owner of Ferreira Café, whose terrasse was closed last night by the city of Montreal’s fire safety service teams for safety reasons,” Plante said via text. “The SIM teams have confirmed the conformity of the terrasses on Peel St. and they will all reopen today. The responsibility of the Fire Safety Service is to ensure the safety of citizens and visitors. The SIM must ensure a constant dialogue and find solutions to balance safety and the vitality of the businesses we all love.”

Meanwhile, the Association des Pompiers de Montréal, the union representing the city’s firefighters, issued a statement to clarify the unpopular terrasse raids were not executed by its members.

“Irritated and deeply disappointed to see its members erroneously and intensely taken to task by various restaurant owners who were forced to close their terraces on Peel, Crescent and Notre Dame Sts. for non-compliance with current safety regulations, on the sidelines of the Montreal Grand Prix activities, the Association des Pompiers de Montréal made it known today its members, the firefighters, had nothing to do with these interventions by the Service de sécurité-incendie de Montréal, the SIM.

Chris Ross, president of the Firefighters Association, went on to say the confusion stems from the fact fire-prevention officials wear uniforms similar to those of firefighters.

While he objected to social media posts that wrongly targeted his members for the action, he, nonetheless, said firefighters support the enforcement of fire safety regulations. “In the past, Montreal has experienced tragic events attributable to this type of offence. In the Association’s view, society cannot afford to be lax, especially during periods of heavy human activity, at the risk of causing disastrous events, even tragedies.”

mlalonde@postmedia.com

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