By Canadian Press

Probe concludes trailer where Nova Scotia family of six died lacked smoke detector

Oct 28, 2021 | 10:27 AM

HALIFAX — A probe by Nova Scotia’s fire marshal’s office has found that the travel trailer where a family of six died amid toxic smoke last month no longer had smoke detection devices.

Doug MacKenzie, the acting chief fire marshal, said in an interview today “there were no smoke alarms discovered” in the camper during the investigation, despite federal records indicating they were present at the time the trailer was manufactured.

The fire safety expert says a properly mounted device would have been capable of alerting people within seconds of the fire.

Thirty-year-old Robert Jorge (R.J.) Sears, 28-year-old Michelle Elaine Robertson, and their children — 11-year-old Madison Anne-Marie Sears, eight-year-old Robert (Ryder) Sears, four-year-old Jaxson Robertson and three-year-old Collin Justin (C.J.) Sears — died in the fire.

MacKenzie said the overnight fire discovered Sept. 12 in remote Millvale, N.S., started due to “accidental misuse of smoking materials” found in the kitchen area of the trailer.

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He said his team’s Oct. 13 report into the cause found that toxins emitted during the smouldering fire included carbon monoxide and gases from burning polyurethane foam in the ultra-lite Passport trailer.

The province’s chief medical examiner has declined to provide the cause of the deaths, but MacKenzie said signs point toward smoke inhalation.

MacKenzie says the national fire code requires that smoke detectors be installed, and when his team checked with Transport Canada it was determined that the travel trailer had smoke and carbon monoxide detectors when it left the factory.

He said the probe did not determine precisely when or why the smoke detectors were removed. A family member has said previously that the trailer was bought second-hand.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 28, 2021.

The Canadian Press