SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Police in Montreal, Canada have confirmed that a University of California-San Diego neuroscientist was killed after a massive fire tore through an Airbnb she was staying in while attending a conference earlier this month.
ABC 10News first reported An Wu missing on March 21.
Up until Monday, Wu was considered missing and her friends in San Diego urged authorities to speed up their search and find her.
Wu was identified as one of the remains that were found in the fire, which claimed the lives of six other people who were also considered missing.
The fatal fire happened on Thursday, March 16 in Montreal. Friends of Wu, who called her "brilliant," said she was staying on the third floor of a heritage building in an Airbnb that caught fire.
Canadian media reported that firefighters used drones to look through what was left of the building and believed the missing were likely among the rubble. Engineers deemed the building to be structurally unsafe over the weekend, according to a report by CTV News.
ABC 10News Reporter Austin Grabish reached out to authorities in Montreal for information after friends were worried about Wu's disappearance and at the time, police said they were not able to confirm the identity of the person found.
Montreal’s mayor has vowed to beef up the regulation of Airbnb rentals in response to the fire. The rentals are banned in the area where Wu was staying by a city bylaw.
