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Early morning fire guts Lachute food bank in old presbytery

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A food bank inside an old Lachute presbytery was destroyed by fire early Saturday morning.


The fire broke out in the back of the St-Julien presbytery around 4 a.m. ET, said neighbour Lys Chisholm.


She said her husband, Marcus Nerenberg, woke up before dawn to tend to their 18-month-old granddaughter when he saw a bright light out the window.


He saw the presbytery's porch and the delivery truck in the driveway in flames. 


Chisholm said the Lachute fire department as well as firefighters from nearby Brownsburg and at least one other municipality converged at the scene of the fire. 


She and her husband saw firefighters heading into the building wearing full breathing masks. 


Nerenberg said the fire ate through the presbytery's insulation, which he said was full of asbestos among other toxins. He said it looked as though firefighters were preparing to tear the building down this morning.


"The building is ruined. The fire spread right to the upper stories, into the roof," Chisholm said.


Neighbours and people who worked at the Centre d'entraide d'Argenteuil food bank gathered in front of the presbytery in tears.


"There's community gardens, there's I think a lot of love and work that's gone into this. A lot of volunteers. It helps people who've lost jobs and are looking to make themselves feel worthy again," Chisholm said. "It's very sad."


Chisholm said the food bank, located in one of Lachute's poorer areas, served upwards of 2,000 people a month. 


It was run out of the early twentieth-century presbytery that had been next to St-Julien Church, which was torn down in 2007 after being abandoned for 11 years.


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