Nova Scotia community remembers three victims of house fire

Three people are dead after an early morning fire in Lower Sackville, N.S., over the weekend.

Flowers, candles and quiet prayers now sit outside a Lower Sackville, N.S., home where three adults died in an early morning fire over the weekend.

Donna Theriault, who lives a few doors down, said she knew the 43-year-old man who lived in the home as someone kind, helpful and always outside working on his car.

“He even changed my tires on time,” she said. “I would walk by and see him working on his car. He was very friendly.”

Flowers now rest on one of his favourite cars parked outside the residence, a small memorial left by neighbours as they try to process the loss.

Halifax Fire’s Deputy Chief Roy Hollet says emergency services responded before 4 a.m. Saturday morning after callers reported a fire at a home on Manor Drive.

RCMP was the first to arrive, but conditions were too intense to enter due to the smoke.

Police say the victims were a 43-year-old man, a 38-year-old woman and a 73-year-old woman.

Theriault said the man lived in the home with his mother, his girlfriend and his young son, who was staying at his mother’s house that weekend.

Theriault said she woke up to sirens and quickly noticed smoke filling her home.

“When I woke up, I could smell smoke,” she said. “I looked out my living room window, and all I saw was red flames and black smoke.

“It was in my throat. It was hard to breathe.”

Theriault ran outside to see whether nearby homes needed to be evacuated and found emergency crews already surrounding the area.

She said a neighbour’s daughter was the first to notice the fire and called 911 after trying desperately to alert the people inside.

“She was trying to bank on the windows,” Theriault said. “She said she was throwing rocks at the windows to try to wake them up.”

Theriault said she watched as firefighters performed CPR outside.

“You can’t unsee it,” she said. “It was like I was watching a TV show, but it was real life. It has been difficult to process.

“We all know each other here. We’re all shaken.”

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