Fire destroys home near St. Andrews West

Fire tore through this home on Delaney Road in South Stormont Sept. 15, 2015 shortly after the people living here had gone to work, according to the Ontario Fire Marshal. The cause is being investigated but preliminary findings indicate the fire was not criminal in nature. (Newswatch Group/Bill Kingston)

SANDFIELD MILLS – The Ontario Fire Marshal is looking into the cause of a fire at a home northeast of St. Andrews West.

Flames tore through a two-storey home with an adjoining garage at 4861 Delaney Road, off County Road 18, around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday morning.

OFM fire investigator Bill Hay said the occupants of the home had left for work around 7 a.m.

“They had vacated the house sometime around seven-ish. The one individual here, she’s a bus driver, so she left with the bus,” Hay said. An SUV was still on the property a few feet from the gutted building.

Neighbours – an off-duty firefighters with the Cornwall Fire Department and his wife – heard the crackling of flames and went to investigate, said Hay.

An SD&G O.P.P. officer holds the scene of a fire on Delaney Road, northeast of St. Andrews West, on Sept. 15, 2015 while Ontario Fire Marshal investigator Bill Hay and a O.P.P. detective compare notes. (Newswatch Group/Bill Kingston)
An SD&G O.P.P. officer holds the scene of a fire on Delaney Road, northeast of St. Andrews West, on Sept. 15, 2015 while Ontario Fire Marshal investigator Bill Hay and a O.P.P. detective compare notes. (Newswatch Group/Bill Kingston)

“My wife was out for the bus (to send their daughter to school) and she saw it, heard it, and called me,” Tyson Chadwick told Cornwall Newswatch. “It was fully involved. The garage was fully involved. When I went over she was gone (to work), the lady who lives there,” Chadwick said.

“There was no reason to believe there was anybody in the house,” he said.

“I know she had a dog and I couldn’t get to the door to get the dogs out because it was fully involved,” Chadwick said.

He believes the family has lived in the home for at least a decade.

At this point, the OFM doesn’t believe there’s anything suspicious.

“The provincial police are involved here to help us with security. There’s been nothing that we’ve observed at this point that would give us an indication that it’s criminal in nature. But everything is on the table at this juncture right now,” Hay told CNW.

There were no reported injuries.

A young man, who identified himself as 'Tyler', is led into the scene by O.P.P. investigators and the Ontario Fire Marshal investigator to survey the damage. The man told investigators he grew up in the home. (Newswatch Group/Bill Kingston)
A young man, who identified himself as ‘Tyler’, is led into the scene by O.P.P. investigators and the Ontario Fire Marshal investigator to survey the damage. The man told investigators he grew up in the home. (Newswatch Group/Bill Kingston)

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