A fire at a house along Highway 132, west of Renfrew last Thursday morning resulted in the death of a man. Douglas – The Ontario Fire Marshal’s Office (OFM) is still looking into a deadly fire in Admaston/Bromley Township that occurred early last Thursday and is considered suspicious. The blaze at a residence on Hwy. 132 close to Stone Road took the life of the sole male resident, who was found deceased inside once firefighters managed to enter. The Douglas Fire Department responded at 5:23 a. m. “When we arrived, there were flames showing from the Delta (southwest) side,” Chief Bill Mc Hale stated. “There were flames coming from the rafters, and there was significant damage at the back of the house near the patio doors and deck.” “There were two vehicles in the yard, and at that time of day when there are two vehicles in the yard, we went under the assumption there may well be somebody in the home because there was nobody outside,” he added. “In addition, it was called in by a passer-by, not the homeowner.” Chief Mc Hale mentioned that when it’s suspected someone might be inside a building, their approach changes immediately. “We went to a very aggressive initial attack,” he explained. “Renfrew Fire is first response as per our agreement with them, so they had two firefighters on scene ready to go in.” He noted they couldn’t enter without backup; once Douglas arrived, two Renfrew firefighters entered with one hose line to fight the fire and conduct an initial search. “Renfrew Fire then, with our guys’ help near the door, found a casualty in the fire and brought that person out,” he said. “Douglas Fire then did a second entry into the building as we had more firefighters on scene and they did a secondary search of other bedrooms in the residence and basement; we did not find any other people inside.” He shared that any call involving loss of life tends to take time for department members to process. “There’s always a family that goes through a whole lot more than first responders do,” he remarked. The firefighters gathered back at their hall on Thursday evening to debrief, recognizing each member processes these events differently. “It’s one of those things where you’re going to think about it,” he commented. “You’re going to think about it for a week, then you’re going to notice you didn’t think about it.” “Then you’re going to think about it for day,” he continued. “But after three weeks if you’re still thinking about it every day, we have a problem.” Chief Mc Hale stated that every time someone from his department drives by over the next 40 or 50 years, they’ll remember this call. “And that’s normal,” he said. He praised OFM for doing an excellent job on this investigation; noting they didn’t finish up their work on site until around 4 p. m. Saturday. “We had Tawnya Roberts leading things on scene several times; she is an unbelievable wealth of information,” he said. “The initial investigators arrived shortly after 2 p. m. Thursday; were back Friday from 8 a. m. until 6 p. m., and again Saturday from 8 – 4.” “And there were two other engineers from OFM there as well.” Steve Buch Carpentry from Douglas was brought in to support some rafters so inspectors could work safely. “There’re all kinds of different hypotheses out there about what started the fire. They’ll nail it down probably within 95 percent certainty.” No answers are expected for several months since this remains under criminal investigation and should be treated accordingly. The Chief emphasized while this fire is viewed as suspicious, there’s no danger to public safety. He mentioned that one stepson lives in Calgary while another daughter resides in Texas. The victim is believed to have been around 67 years old. Sixteen firefighters responded. Water access came from nearby Renfrew’s hydrant.
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