One man is dead after a Tawatinaw-area home burned to the ground last week.
Police got a call Tuesday, Nov. 22 at around 8:30 a.m. from a passerby who noticed the house near Township Road 614 and Range Road 245 was no longer standing. The Clyde and Westlock Rural fire departments responded just before 9 a.m. Tuesday.
“Once they arrived on scene, it was noted that the fire must have happened previously, probably in the early morning so possibly anywhere from 1 to 2 a.m. in the morning when everybody was basically sleeping,” said Westlock County fire chief John Biro. “The fire basically burned undetected throughout the night.”
The home was burned to the ground when firefighters arrived on scene, he said. The only things left standing were various appliances.
Upon further investigation the remains of a body was found. Westlock RCMP Cpl. Dave Casey said an autopsy was completed on Thursday, Nov. 24, but the medical examiner’s office is still awaiting dental records to confirm the man’s identity and toxicology reports to confirm the cause of death.
All he could say was that the body was that of an older male.
“The investigation is still ongoing until we have confirmed identity and of course, confirmed the cause of death,” he said.
The cause of the fire is also under investigation.
“There’s no indication of the cause of the fire just because everything was destroyed. But there was an accelerant-sniffing dog that came out and there’s no indication that this would be arson,” he said.
Casey said foul play is not suspected and the death is believed to be a result of the fire.
Fire investigators were unable to determine a point of ignition for the fire and were unable to determine if the fire was a result of electrical problems or something else in the house due to the fact that there was nothing left when responders arrived.
RCMP expect the cause of death and identity of the victim to be released sometime this week.
The remains were not discovered until after the firefighters were relieved of duties, but Biro said it always impacts the responders.
“Whether they found something or not, of course it impacts us,” he said.
“Any fire is not a good fire and being a close-knit community as well, usually everyone knows everyone, so it definitely does affect everyone when they go home.”
He said being part of a volunteer department, a fire or motor vehicle accident has a harsher impact since the firefighters usually have to go back to work or head home after responding to an incident.
“When you’re a paid department, just like in the city, they go back to the station where they’re there with their crews basically on that shift and they talk about things,” Biro said.
“When it comes to a volunteer … they go back to their families and have to pretend nothing ever happened or they go back to their jobs and deal with their normal lifestyle at work and pretend nothing happened.”
There are various measures in place to help volunteer firefighters cope with incidents, including department debriefs, counseling services and extended monitoring if necessary.
“If we have individuals that are basically handling the fatality or the victim, we definitely speak with our people and see how they’re dealing with it,” Biro said. “Everybody comes in, we discuss the call itself just to get it out and talk about it and then we continue to monitor the person.”
Biro said this time of year brings increased risk of structure fires, as more people are doing things like using space heaters or plugging in their vehicles in improper ways.
“We saw a lot of garages burn up last year and this year due to vehicles being plugged in and the good thing was, they were all detached garages. If it would have been attached garages, then it would have been a different story.”
Last year, there were 15 structure fires that Westlock County’s rural departments responded to. So far this year, there have already been 15 fires, with more to come in December and into the new year, which are the peak times for structure fires, he said.
