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Mattress factory fire destroys Rivière-des-Prairies industrial building

An intense fire in a Rivière-des-Prairies industrial park has destroyed a mattress factory.

The fire began around 5:30 p.m. Saturday on Marco-Polo Avenue near Henri-Bourassa Boulevard East.

Close to 100 firefighters were called to the scene. It took them about seven hours to fully extinguish the flames.

Fire operations chief Ian Ritchie said the factory contained a lot of combustible material, and that the intensity of the flames weakened the building's steel structure.

Ritchie said firefighters had to move slow to extinguish the fire bit by bit due to a risk of the building collapsing.

Firefighters managed to prevent the fire from spreading to neighbouring buildings, but they could not save the mattress factory. It is considered a total loss.

No one was inside the factory at the time of the fire, and no one was injured, according to the Montreal fire department.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.