The fire that struck a Sydney apartment building Sunday night and claimed a woman’s life was accidental, police say.
Sgt. Mike Kennedy said the Cape Breton Regional Police Service was contacting next of kin yesterday and working with the medical examiner’s office to make a positive identification of the woman, which may require the use of dental records.
He said the woman was in her 50s and an autopsy is scheduled for this week.
Deputy fire Chief Richard Bulley said yesterday that the Charlotte Street fire started around the stove in the second floor apartment of the woman who died.
“We know that it probably started around the stove area but we can’t say for sure whether it was a grease pot or not,” he said.
A man identified by police as boyfriend of the dead woman was rushed from the fire scene to the Cape Breton Regional Hospital.
Hospital spokeswoman Lynn Gilbert said yesterday the man was in critical condition.
The other tenants in the building escaped without harm.
Dwight Fraser MacLeod, who lived in the apartment building on the ground floor, noticed the smell of smoke.
He said no one knocked on his door to say the building was on fire. “If I would have been asleep … it could have been worse.”
Firefighters responded to an alarm at 10:50 p.m. Sunday, quickly locating the dead woman who was found in a bed, Bulley said.
He said the blaze caused considerable damage to the upper floor.
