Quebec provincial police investigating fire at Matane seafood plant

Quebec provincial police have taken over an investigation into an overnight fire at a shrimp processing plant in the town of Matane, roughly 400 kilometres northeast of Quebec City.

The fire at the Fruits de mer de l'Est du Québec factory forced some local residents out of their homes for several hours early this morning before firefighters extinguished the flames.

Matane Mayor Eddy Métivier said the plant was a "total loss."

The blaze erupted over a week after the factory announced it was closing its doors.

Sûreté du Québec (SQ) spokesperson Stéphane Tremblay says firefighters were initially leading an investigation into the cause of the blaze but received information that led them to transfer the case to investigators with the provincial police force's major crimes unit.

Local MNA Pascal Bérubé posted a video from the scene on social media, showing a large cloud of smoke emanating from the plant just before 7 p.m. on Friday.

The municipality asked residents in the surrounding area to evacuate their homes at midnight.

Around 120 people were evacuated but were able to return to their homes at around 5:30 a.m. on Saturday after no threat to local air quality was detected.

Jean-Pierre Chamberland, the president of Fruits de mer de l'Est du Québec's board of directors, says the evacuation was necessary because the factory contained ammonia, a chemical used for refrigeration.

"Ammonia is a very dangerous product that can be fatal if inhaled," he said.

Chamberland says nobody was inside at the time of the fire.

"Everything was blocked, everything was closed," he said.

On March 18, the factory announced its closure, blaming its shuttering on the lack of workers from abroad and decreasing supply of raw materials.

Over 50 local employees lost their jobs and around 150 temporary foreign workers were expected to begin work for the start of crab season.