Rcmp Nova Scotia links murder, four Antigonish County fires
rcmp nova scotia says a murder and four fires in Antigonish County on Sunday night are all connected. The homicide involved Terry Izzard, whose body firefighters found after putting out a fire at his Upper Big Tracadie home. Investigators believe the homicide and the fires were targeted incidents.
The first fire was reported at Izzard’s home at about 8:25 p.m. on Sunday evening. A second house was reported on fire on Highway 16 in Upper Big Tracadie about an hour later, and the Mulgrave Volunteer Fire Department was called to The Manor apartment building on Tower Road at 11:24 p.m.
Upper Big Tracadie fire
Firefighters found Izzard’s body after extinguishing the fire at his home. The Nova Scotia Medical Examiner’s Office said after an autopsy on Thursday that Izzard was murdered. RCMP said the fire at his home was the second fire at the property in as many weeks, after a blaze on April 18 largely gutted the house.
The home fire and the later blaze on Highway 16 are part of the same series under investigation. RCMP has said the events are connected, which ties the death at the first house directly to the later fires in the county.
The Manor on Tower Road
At The Manor, two apartments and a hallway on the second floor were on fire inside the three-story building. Dan MacEachern, the Mulgrave Volunteer Fire Department chief, said, “It wasn’t good,” after crews arrived.
There were multiple squatters in the partially occupied building, and some refused to leave. RCMP helped convince two people on the second and third floors to let firefighters bring them down with ground ladders.
Auld’s Cove, Port Hastings, Port Hawkesbury and Havre Boucher Volunteer Fire Departments joined the 17-hour fight to control the Tower Road fire. Several people were injured and some were taken to hospital by EHS.
The case now links one death, two house fires in Upper Big Tracadie and the long Tower Road apartment fire under the same RCMP investigation. That leaves the surviving people from The Manor and the owners at the fire locations dealing with a case that now spans separate scenes across Antigonish County.
