The home of Brian and Marlene Doncaster was completely destroyed by fire last Saturday in what police are investigating as arson.
The couple was at home asleep when a crash woke up Marlene, and she discovered her living room ablaze. The couple escaped uninjured, though Brian went to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.
Brian and Marlene’s son Garrett spoke with CHMA on Friday to talk about what happened, and put out a call for information on the fire. Garrett Doncaster says his parents have been touched by the outpouring of support from the community, but after the arson, they don’t feel safe.
Hear Garrett Doncaster in conversation on Tantramar Report. Erica Butler started off asking Doncaster to recount what happened on June 5th:
Doncaster says that early in the morning of Saturday, June 5, his mother Marlene woke up to a smashing sound in the house, and when she went to investigate, found her living room on fire. She and her husband Brian evacuated the house immediately and went to seek help. Brian contacted a firefighter who lives nearby, and then went back to move his truck out of his garage.
“By that time, the house was pretty well gone,” says Garrett Doncaster. The Sackville Fire Department arrived, along with aid from the Point de Bute and Dorchester fire departments. “They managed to save the garage to the house,” says Doncaster. “So that was really good.”
His father Brian was treated for smoke inhalation in hospital, but is physically fine, says Doncaster. His concern is for his parents mental state. “It’s awful hard, you know, if you’re convinced somebody’s trying to kill you,” says Doncaster. “And they’re not being unreasonable in thinking that.”
This is not the first suspicious fire in the vicinity of Pond Shore Road and Upper Aboujagane Road, and not even the first fire at the Doncasters’. On May 13, Doncaster says his parents woke up to discover someone had tried to set their deck on fire. “It was raining that night and didn’t take,” says Doncaster. “But, whoever did this, tried it again and succeeded this time.” His parents have also had their truck vandalized, he says.
The house across the road from the Doncasters, at the intersection with Upper Aboujagane, was destroyed by fire earlier in the month. The house next to that, which has been the subject of multiple police search warrants and seizures in the past year, also had a suspicious fire in mid-May.
CHMA has requested an update from the RCMP on the investigation into the suspicious fires.
The Doncasters haven’t heard much from the RCMP in terms of developments in the investigation into the fire. “I feel bad for the police,” says Doncaster, “because they’re so badly understaffed in this area, and have been for a long time.”
“The individual boots on the ground, the individual police officers are doing their absolute best,” says Doncaster, “but they just don’t have time to do much investigation when they’re going from call to call constantly.”
And so Doncaster is putting out a call for information to assist the RCMP in their investigation.
Doncaster is appealing to “anybody that saw anything around Upper Sackville or heard anything, or might be able to provide any information.”
“This is more than just a theft or break and enter or something like that. This is people’s lives at stake. It’s way too serious. It’s just something that we never thought we’d ever have to deal with around here.”
Doncaster says there is a “bright spot in a dark time,” and that’s the community response to his parents situation. “It’s just unbelievable how great everyone’s been,” he says, with offers of clothing, places to stay, money and support rolling in. “Anything that people could think of to provide, they’ve offered it,” says Doncaster. “We’re very fortunate… It’s probably more than we ever deserve, really, to live in a community this great,” he says.
Doncaster says the home was insured, and his parents are taken care of. He’s asking people who want to make monetary donations to instead donate money to support the local fire departments in Sackville, Dorchester and Point de Bute.
