Hyndford – The Ontario Fire Marshal’s Office, the OPP Forensic Identification Services and the Renfrew County Crime Unit are continuing their investigation into a fire Monday evening that may have claimed the life of the lone occupant.
Both the Eganville and Sebastopol stations of the Bonnechere Valley Township Fire Department were paged out at about 8 p.m. after a resident of Hyndford spotted a glow in the evening sky and at first thought it might have been a hunt camp burning.
However, after driving to the area where the flames were visible, Derek Dick realized the home, owned and occupied by Boyd Hussey, was fully engulfed in flames. His vehicle was parked behind the residence, an old log home with a wooden addition, built in the late 1800s. The car was also in flames.
Mr. Dick, who lives just outside of Hyndford on the road to Douglas, was walking to a barn to check on cattle when he noticed the glow in the sky.
“There’s a hunt camp in that area and I thought it was the camp on fire,” he said. When he realized the fire was on Hussey Road, he had a bad feeling and immediately called 911.
The structure was fully involved in flames when firefighters, Ontario Provincial Police and Renfrew County paramedics arrived.
Hussey Road is a dead-end road that runs off Scotch Bush Road, about two km south of Hyndford. The residence was located at the end of the road, about one km in from the main road.
Mr. Hussey was quite active in the Eganville community back in the mid 1990s through his involvement with the Valley Festival choir which staged yearly classical musical concerts in Eganville and other Valley towns. He sang with the choir. However, neighbours said he had not been in the best of health in recent years and they often assisted him with bringing in wood and doing other chores.
According to Bob Dick, who lives nearby, the land was originally homesteaded by the Byers family, then the Harry Garvin family who sold it to Gordon Sutherland before it was purchased by Harvey Hussey, Boyd’s father. While there was nothing firefighters could do but pour water on the flaming structure, several nearby outbuildings and barns escaped the flames.
