Apartment fire sends Canada PM’s mother to hospital

Margaret Trudeau, the mother of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, was rushed to hospital overnight after a fire broke out in her Montreal apartment, sources and local media said Tuesday.

Emergency response officials told AFP that one person was transported to the hospital, as local media posted images of several fire trucks, their long ladders extended and hoses strewn across the road at her downtown residence.

The prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to requests for information.

But public broadcaster Radio-Canada said Margaret Trudeau, who is also the widow of late prime minister Pierre Trudeau, was treated in hospital for smoke inhalation and possibly burns.

She is expected to recover.

The blaze reportedly started on a fifth-floor terrace and took 70 firefighters to douse. Three families were evacuated.