'We are all devastated'

Posted By Bruce Urquhart, SENTINEL-REVIEW

Updated 19 days ago

The daughter of the 76-year-old man who investigators believe perished along with his son in Wednesday's early morning fire said her family was shocked by the unexpected deaths.

"We are all devastated," Lynda Carlisle said Thursday. "It was sudden. You get a call and everything's gone within an hour."

While investigators have yet to positively identify the two bodies recovered from the debris of the 11th Line farmhouse, the family has already begun to make funeral arrangements for George Rodwell and his 54-year-old son Brian. The remains of two people were recovered Wednesday and Thursday from the East Zorra-Tavistock property as investigators continued to search the rubble of the razed brick home for signs of the missing men.

The Oxford County OPP indicated that post-mortem examinations would be conducted today to positively identify the two bodies as part of the ongoing investigation into the fatal fire.

Yesterday, the scene of the fire remained closed under the authority of the Ontario Fire Marshal and the coroner's office. A single OPP officer was stationed at the entrance to the farm's laneway to keep the property secure.

The cause of the fire is still unknown.

A passing neighbour called the fire into local emergency services shortly after midnight Wednesday. Within minutes, firefighters from the Hickson, Innerkip and Tavistock stations began to arrive at the scene of the blaze, but the old farmhouse was already engulfed. Carlisle said firefighters were able to quickly extinguish the fire, but the brick home had already been destroyed.

"It was an old, old house," Carlisle said.

For most of Wednesday, investigators from the Ontario Fire Marshal's Office, the township fire department and the OPP were focused on recovering the remains of the two missing men. After the farmhouse was razed, and a backhoe had cleared the rubble, investigators began to comb through the piles of debris for any sign of the father and son.

"Firefighters and the Ontario Fire Marshal are now having to knock down the walls of the structure and clear the debris away in stages," Harwood said Wednesday.

burquhart@bowesnet.com