Fire

Jeff Green | Mar 22, 2007

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Undetermined cause in 13 IslandLake house fireby Jeff Green

On March 13, a house burned down on 13 Island Lake off of the Deyo road. At the time, South Frontenac Fire Chief Rick Cheseborough said he considered the fire suspicious, partly because of some footprints in the vicinity, and partly because the fire took place at a cottage that was shut down for the winter, so it is hard to see what would have caused an accidental fire to start.

An investigation into the cause of the fire was conducted by the Fire Marshall’s office, and “it’s going to go down as an undetermined cause”, Cheseborough told the News. “The Fire Marshall took some samples for forensic analysis, and the samples were sent to Toronto. It can take up to three months or four months before they are analysed,” Cheseborough added.

Detective Constable Ouellette of the Frontenac Detachment is the investigating officer in the case. She told the News that she will be talking to the Fire Marshall and will proceed with the case from there.

Four fires have taken place in a tight circle in between Verona and Godfrey since late December. The first took place at a house on Howes Lake Lane near Desert Lake road on December 19th, and the next two on the Clow road at the southern border of Central Frontenac, one a house fire on December 29th and the other a barn fire on January 3rd. According to Central Frontenac Fire Chief Mark MacDonald, the cause of the two Clow road fires has not been determined as of yet.

Both of the houses that burned down at Christmas time were owned by people who were away over the Christmas break and no one was hurt, but several animals died in the barn fire on January 3rd.

Rick Cheseborough said that the cause of a fire that destroyed a family home north of Sydenham a week before the latest fire on 13 Island Lake was “definitely accidental”.