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22-1 Maple Avenue
Sussex, New Brunswick Canada E4E 2N5

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A March 26 fire at this church avenue apartment building in sussex kept the local fire department busy for hours. None of the seven tenants were home when the fire started.

Sussex - A fire broke out at an apartment building thursday night and completely comsumed the top floor of the building.

The call came in about 9:45p.m. March 26 to report of a fire which had broken out on the top floor of an apartment building on Church Avenue. The fire was deemed non-suspicious. Although no people were harmed by the fire, a police report said a dog was killed and two cats were rescued from the second floor.

Suessex Fire Chief Bill Wanamaker said luckily no one was in the apartment when it caught fire.

"The residents weren't there, they had left approximately three hours before we got the call," he said.

Wanamaker said reaching the fire would have much more difficult without the help of an N.B. Power truck and its bucket lift. "It helped get us to the height we needed to fight the fire. Height was a little bit of a challenge there for a little while."

Wanamaker said including the overhaul, the fire crew was on scene for about four hours.

Terry Cassidy, the owner of the apartment building, said he doesn't know if he'll be able to salvage his building located next to St. Francis Xavier Church. "It's too early to tell," he said. "Of course, that's up to the insurance company to decide."

Cassidy said he bought the building from Chris Palmer and didn't own it long before the fire broke out.

"I've had the building for two months," he said. "I bought it February first."

Cassidy said he's not sure what his seven tenants plan to do now they're home has been so damaged.

"I know two of them moved their goods out and of course they have friends who are going to let them store their stuff in their basements and let them stay with them."

Investigation Police believe an accelerant was used before homeowner dashed out of the inferno

Tom deWinter, 61, is still in the burn unit at the Saint John Regional Hospital after being caught in a fire that destroyed his Apohaqui home around 7:45 a.m. Monday, March 9, 2009.

APOHAQUI - Police suspect the fire that destroyed an Apohaqui home and seriously injured a man was deliberately set.

"It's a suspicious fire in that it appears an accelerant was used," Sgt. Bruce Reid of the Sussex RCMP confirmed Tuesday.

The Mounties and Sussex Fire Chief Bill Wanamaker combed through the charred debris from the fire that completely devasted the Sunset Avenue home of Tom deWinter early Monday morning. By noon that day, the case was handed over to the fire marshal's office for a more detailed investigation because of suspicions that the fire wasn't accidental."

The modular home, which was insured, did not have a wood stove.

Reid said police need to question the 61-year-old deWinter, who is still recovering from serious burns in the Saint John Regional Hospital.

"We are waiting to interview the homeowner," he said. "His condition hasn't changed since yesterday. He's not well enough to interview yet."

Neighbours watched just before 8 a.m. Monday morning as fire started to spread through deWinter's home. Within moments, the homeowner tore out of the front door of the house in his underwear, diving into the snow to ease his pain.

He made his was to the middle of the road, lying there with extreme burns, waiting for an ambulance as neighbours covered him in blankets. He was taken to the Sussex Health Centre by ambulance, stabilized and transported to the burn unit of the Regional.

DeWinter was the only person in the house. Neighbors say he was separated from his wife and recently laid off from his job at the potash mine in Penobsquis.

Fire severely damaged building just two years ago

A late night drive ended up with an unexpected visit to the Dixie Lee Fried Chicken restaurant at Four Corners for two people Aug. 24.

RCMP and the Sussex Fire Department were called to the scene after a car took a speedy shortcut through the Four Corners Irving parking lot, hit a curb, crossed Wheeler Road and entered the restaurant throught the wall to the left of the entrance.

Security guard Trevor Hayes of Jadal Security said first responders were on the scene at about 2:30 a.m.

"The car was in right up to its back wheels. There were still people in the vehicle and one was taken to hospital," he said.

"They went through the kitchen, so the fire department had to secure the gas lines, and the hydro was shut off."

Jadal Security patrols Kingsco Transport and the Dixie Lee building next door, as Kingsco owns both buildings, said Hayes.

The car was towed away shortly before 4 a.m., Police took pictures and measurements in an effort to determine exactly how the accident occured.

Faint skidmarks from one wheel were visible leading up to the wall. The hole was boarded up and a large sign, left over from the restaurant's renovations after a fire in September 2006, proclaimed the Dixie Lee would be "reopening soon."

Inside the restaurant, manager Suzy Voutour waited for insurance representatives amid a mess of scattered stainless steel equipment, hanging wires and insulation and wrecked walls. Broken pop bottles made a dark sticky mess across the floor.

A tourist visitor information centre in the same building was also closed following the accident.

Voutour could not say when the restaurant would be reopening.