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It will take up to four months to remove debris from a fire-damaged Defence Department building in Gatineau but in the meantime the federal government is scrounging for office furniture for public servants displaced by the blaze, according to a document leaked to the Ottawa Citizen.

The fire broke out in the Louis St. Laurent building April 21, forcing the shutdown of the facility and the need to find new offices for the 1,800 Department of National Defence and Canadian Forces staff who worked there. Some 1,400 staff are now spread across Ottawa and Gatineau at different office locations, while another 400 continue to work from home.

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Accessing government files still left in the building at 555 Boul. de la Carrière has been a problem, according to the DND document.

The fire started on the building’s sixth floor. Part of the roof of the building caved in but the extent of the damage has not been released.