Nathan Sears’s family has filed a class-action lawsuit against Airbnb, the property owner, and the person who ran the business
Brittany Sears’s last two and a half weeks have been full of hope, confusion, and overwhelming grief.
“My heart has felt more pain than I ever thought was possible.”
Nathan Sears, her brother, was one of the seven people who died on March 16 when a fire tore through a historic building in Old Montreal. The 35-year-old was there for an academic conference and stayed at an Airbnb in the building.
“Nathan seemed to be so good at everything he did and to enjoy every part of his life,” Sears said as she sat in her parents’ house in Grand-Barachois, N.B.
“Out of all the people I’m sad about, including myself, my parents, his wife, and my son, Nathan is the one I’m saddest about the most.”
Now, her family has filed a class action lawsuit against the property owner, the company that ran the short-term rental, and Airbnb for $22 million.
The police are still looking into what happened, and there will be a public inquiry soon. The families of those who died want to know what happened.
WATCH | A grieving sister says that the deadly fire in Old Montreal could have been stopped:
The victims’ families are left with questions
The fire did a lot of damage to the historic building, which was built in 1890. Only the front, which is still standing, is still in good shape.
As the fire raged, nine people were able to get out. It wasn’t clear at first who hadn’t.
For two days, firefighters said that only a long-time resident of the building was missing. Then it became clear that Nathan Sears and six other people who had rented Airbnbs could not be found.
His sister talks about how crazy the days after the fire were.
She said, “That first 24 hours were full of confusion, disbelief, and a lot of hope.” Hope that Nathan had found a way to get out.
“We weren’t able to find the information we needed. No one told us what was going on, so we didn’t know what was going on.”
Brittany came from the south of France and Nathan’s wife came from Toronto. Nathan’s parents came from Spain.
Brittany said, “We all stayed in Montreal for the next nine days and held a vigil at the site of the fire.”
The trip was longer for the parents of another victim, An Wu, who was 31 years old.
Fei Wu and Furong Qu rushed to get visas so they could leave their home in Tongling, China, and go to Montreal so they could find out about their only child.
“At first, we didn’t know about the fire. We were very worried, but not hopeless,” Qu, An’s mother, said in Mandarin to CBC through an interpreter.
“We were scared when we found out it was a fire. We tried to get in touch with her over and over, but nothing worked. We were scared to death.”
Fire alarms and Airbnb
Both the Sears and Wu families stood guard outside the building and watched with worry as firefighters and investigators did their jobs.
As time went on, more and more details about the building and the fire came to light.
Alina Kuzmina and her husband were staying there that night in an Airbnb. They said that bright orange flames crashing against their door woke them up. They say that there were no fire alarms.
Inside, people were renting out several Airbnbs, which is against the law in that part of Old Montreal. After the fire, Airbnb said it would take down any short-term rentals that didn’t have a provincial permit.
The building near the corner of Place d’Youville and St-Nicolas Street was called “a fire trap” by worried renters, according to a CBC report.
Another victim, Charlie Lacroix, was 18 years old. Her family talks about how she called 911 that night and said she was in a room with no windows.
Brittany said, “All we were trying to do was get little bits of information, little pieces of the puzzle, because that information was our only way out.”
The parents of An Wu had to deal with culture shock and a language barrier. The Chinese community quickly came together to help them.
“We’ve cried so much these past few days, this hurts so much,” Wu said.
Wu was told that his daughter was found dead in her bed, having breathed in too much smoke. The Sears family was also told that Nathan had died from breathing in too much smoke.
On Tuesday, the Quebec government said it will hold a public inquiry into what caused the fire. The Montreal police are still looking into what happened.
The families say that no matter what the investigations find, nothing will ever be enough to help them get over this tragedy.
Fei Wu said, “For us, Montreal is a place of heartbreak and anger.”
With translation by Beijia Lin and Yan Liang of Radio-Canada International