MONTREAL, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- City and charitable workers in Montreal began searching Monday for homes for 40 low-income families burned out of their three-story apartment building.
More than half of the 120 people forced into the freezing street Friday were children, many under the age of 5. Some had family members elsewhere to take them in, but the majority spent the weekend in hotels wearing clothes donated by charitable groups, the Globe and Mail reported.
"In Montreal, there really isn't any good time of the year to look for housing," said Eric Kingsley, a volunteer with the Sun Youth Organization. That group rushed to the scene Friday evening with clothes and teddy bears to shepherd the dazed residents into buses against the cold.
A majority of those left homeless are Muslim, first-generation immigrants with few friends or family nearby. Almost all were on welfare or have low incomes, and none of the residents reportedly had fire insurance.
There were no serious injuries in the blaze, and the cause remains under investigation.
