Another fire has destroyed a home in Upper Sackville.
The Sackville Fire Department was called to the scene of a burning home at 2039 Upper Aboujagane Road (near the intersection with Pond Shore Road) at about 4:15am on Tuesday morning. The home was gutted by the fire, and the Red Cross says it is assisting two displaced adults with emergency lodging and financial aid to buy food, clothing and other basic needs.
The cause of the fire is being investigated by the RCMP and the provincial Fire Marshal’s Office, according to a release by the Red Cross. CHMA has reached out to the Sackville RCMP for more information.
This is the second time a fire has damaged the home at 2039 Upper Aboujagane Road. On May 13, a suspicious fire was set at the home, and someone was charged in relation to the incident.
It’s the third home destroyed by fire in the immediate area. A nearby home on Pond Shore Road owned by Brian and Marlene Doncaster was destroyed by a suspicious overnight fire on June 5, and is being investigated by the RCMP. And in early May, the house across from the Doncasters and neighbouring 2039 Upper Aboujagane was also destroyed by a fire which is under investigation by the RCMP.
COMMUNITY SAFETY ORDER CLOSED DOWN PROPERTY
2039 Upper Aboujagane was officially vacant at the time of the fire on Tuesday, after having been the object of a Community Safety Order issued on June 3, which ordered residents Carrie Trude and Colt Leblanc out of the house as of June 7, 2021.
The order was issued under the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods (SCAN) Act, a piece of legislation that allows for court-ordered closure of a property found to be used regularly for certain purposes that are adversely affecting the surrounding community.
After two SCAN complaints made in May and August 2020, investigators started observing the property on Upper Aboujagane Road, noting the volume and frequency of traffic coming and going. Before that, in March 2020, the RCMP had already begun a drug trafficking investigation related to the property. RCMP searched the home at least three times in the past year, once in January and twice in April. Arrests were made both times, but charges have yet to be laid.
During the two April searches, police seized a high-powered laser, a drone with drugs and money hidden inside, and a replica gun. Police also seized significant quantities of what is believed to be crack cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, hydromorphone pills and other prescriptions pills.
In May of this year, SCAN brought the results of their investigation to court, alleging the property at 2039 Upper Aboujagane Road was being used for the sale of illegal drugs and adversely affecting the community.
Judge Denise Leblanc ultimately agreed. In her decision on June 3, Leblanc noted that no neighbours were willing to sign an affidavit attesting to the adverse affects in the community stemming from the use of the property. However, she also noted the seizure of weapons and drugs at the property, the presence of surveillance equipment at the property, the occurrence of fires nearby, as well as an assault that occurred on the property. “Common sense commands me to infer that the occurrences in the neighbourhood and on the Property are inextricably linked to what goes on in the Property,” wrote Leblanc in her decision. “Common sense also commands me to infer that these occurrences adversely affect the community and neighbourhood, and the Respondents themselves, who are part of this community and neighbourhood.”
At the hearing on May 26, Trude testified, saying that she and Leblanc were being harassed by vehicles shining spotlights in their property in the wee hours. She told the court the problems started about a year ago with some thefts in the neighbourhood that were blamed on her and Leblanc. She denied wrongdoing by herself and Leblanc, and called the police and SCAN investigators “relentless.”
On June 7, the day the Community Safety Order was to go into effect on their house, Trude and Leblanc submitted a motion to appeal the decision in favour of the SCAN order, but that motion was denied, and their home was closed that day.
CHMA will continue to follow this story.
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