Man and girl die in Lower Sackville fire
A man, 58, and a 11-year-old girl died in an early morning fire at a Lower Sackville duplex Saturday.
An 18-year-old man was taken to the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax with life- threatening injuries. A 46-year-old woman was rescued from an upstairs window.
Police and fire crews responded to the call at 34 Leaside Drive, off Sackville Drive, at 2:34 a.m.
“Our members were the first on scene, in about two minutes,” said Cpl. Dal Hutchinson of the RCMP. “When they arrived on scene, they retrieved a ladder from a neighbouring property and went up the ladder and rescued the woman from an upstairs window.”
The woman suffered minor injuries.
Hutchinson said the man was dead at the scene and the girl died after being transferred to IWK Health Centre in Halifax. He said Saturday afternoon that there has been no update on the younger man’s condition.
Police did not say if or how the four were related.
The building is directly behind the Sackville Drive strip mall that contains a Scotiabank branch, the Chef’s Menu restaurant and Cape and Cowl Comics and Collectibles.
A woman passing by the scene in late morning said she lived a short distance away but hadn’t heard anything. She said the residents in the apartment buildings behind 32 and 34 Leaside were awakened by thick smoke. But tenants coming and going sporadically from the apartment buildings on Seawood Avenue that sits behind Leaside said they hadn’t heard anything, either.
“I don’t know anything,” said a man who was backing his van out of an apartment building driveway. “Just what I heard on the news. jacent A young It’s apartment a terrible, man living building terrible in an thing.” didn’t adeven “I never know there heard had the been sirens a fire. or anything,” sleeper. I hope he said. nobody “I’m was a hurt.” heavy
mander Brad Connors, with the fire a division department, comsaid where it the is not fire started. yet known He said how the or basement fire was mostly level. contained to the
“There would have been heat and smoke on the first and second floors but all the fire was contained to the basement,” Connors said.
Hutchinson said the family living in the adjoining unit of the duplex got out safely and that the fire appears to have been contained to one side of the building.
That was confirmed by Connors, who added that there might have been some smoke migration into the adjoining unit but he said the people living there could probably return home on the weekend.
“If there is no structural damage, there should be no reason why not,” Connors said.
A good deal of the smoke damage appeared to be at the rear of the unit, where a deck led out to a small yard. The basement windows were smashed out, lawnmowers were stored under the deck and a wet and smudged pair of belted jeans sat by the wire fence. A trampoline was set up at the other side of the duplex property and the wooden fence that divided the two yards had been knocked down. “I smelled nothing and I heard not a thing,” said a woman who lived up the street. “People were telling me on the phone, two people died and one in is serious condition. I hope it was accidental and that it wasn’t somebody smoking or something.” Hutchinson said the fire did not appear suspicious. He said there were reportedly two dogs in the fire-damaged unit of the duplex. “One passed away but they were able to rescue one of them.” A teacher at a nearby elementary school approached the taped-off front yard and asked if anyone knew the identities of the deceased, already preparing for the possibility of having to comfort grieving classmates when they return to school next week. The identities had not been released. By late morning, two men had already begun what appeared to be a massive cleanup at the back of the building and inside. With Canadian Press Files