Milano grocery store forced to close, 7 people homeless after fire

It took a Montreal family more than 60 years to build, but after a weekend firethe owners of theMilanogrocery store will have to start all over again.

Firefighters say acigarette discarded in a flower pot on a balcony above the store was the source of the fire, which broke out early Saturday afternoon.

Seven people lost their homes in the blaze. As 125 firefighters fought the flames, Milano'ssuffered significant water damage.

"We have to throw everything out and start over,"Milanoco-owner,MarioZaurinni, told CBC News. "The store needs to be cleaned [and] disinfected."

Milano's has beena family-run business since it opened in theRosemont-Petite-Patrieborough in 1954.Over the years it has become a Little Italy institution, a place to go for authentic Italian food products.Zaurinnitook over the business with his sister after their father died in 2011.

The storeemploys77 people, who will be out of a jobuntil the store reopens, Zaurrinisaid.

"I never thought one day we'd go through this," he said. "It's hard to take. We don't know how long we're going to be closed."

• Fire forces evacuations at Milano grocery store, apartments

'Huge black cloud'

Those residents living in the apartments above the store described dashing out of the building, taking with them whatever they couldcarry.

"I started to smell smoke. So I look at the backyard terrace and saw a wooden patio chair and table on fire," Beatriz Bartolome Herrera, a resident in the building, told CBC News.

Bartoleme Herrera grabbed her cat and computer and managed to leave thebuilding on time.

"The fire expanded really quickly and in a few minutes there was a huge black cloud coming out of the building," she said.

Two firefighterssuffered minor injuries one fell from a ladder and another was treated for smoke inhalation. The fire department saidsix units are a total loss one of which was Bartolome Herrera's.

"I didn't expect my apartment to be so destroyed," she said, but added she didn't lose much since she was planning to move back to Spain in a week.

Others, like her neighbour who has lived in the building for 43 years, "lost everything,"Herrera said.

The Red Cross is puttingthose displaced by the fire in a hotel.

PierinoDiTonno, an 82-year-old photographer who lives in an apartment owned byMilano'sand who successfully fought an eviction notice from the store, is safe but his apartment was damaged, his lawyer said Saturday.

• Octogenarian avoids eviction from Montreal home of 35 years