A baby boy and young girl were found dead after a house went up in flames on a rural property in western Alberta on Wednesday morning, RCMP confirmed Friday.
RCMP said members from the central Alberta district crime reduction unit were already in the area on the northwestern shore of Buck Lake, when their investigation led to a home on Township 465 near Range Road 630, where there was a house on fire. The fire was spotted just after 11 a.m.
RCMP said officers called firefighters and upon arriving at the property north of the hamlet of Buck Lake, were told there were two children trapped inside the burning home.
The RCMP said the officers attempted to rescue the children but due to the extent of the fire, it was impossible to enter the house.
“It was significant,” Cpl. Deanna Fontaine said. “The officers tried a number of different parts of that residence to gain entry, and it was so involved that it was just not possible to get inside to get those children out.
“Just tragic. Absolutely tragic.”
Breton and Thorsby RCMP responded, along with multiple volunteer fire services who worked to extinguish the fire on the rural property in the County of Wetaskiwin.
It was a sweltering day on Wednesday and due the intensity of the fire, RCMP said a search of the building was not possible until Thursday.
When the home was searched, the bodies of the two missing children from Drayton Valley were recovered: a one-year-old boy and four-year-old girl.
“Our hearts just go out to those families, the people that were there, the people who’ve lost these children. It’s unimaginable,” Fontaine said.
Someone from the medical examiner’s office was at the property on Thursday, and RCMP Cpl. Mike Hibbs told Global News autopsies will happen in the coming days.
There was a large police presence at the property Thursday. RCMP said officers from the major crimes unit, general investigation section of the serious crimes branch, and the forensic identification section were there, along with a fire investigator. Drones were also seen flying over the heavily treed yard.
A neighbour in the area claimed the property was known to police and that morning, an officer had asked to use her yard to set up surveillance on the home where the fire happened.
On Friday, Fontaine said officers were in the area for an unrelated case and “there is absolutely no connection with that investigation to this residence.”
The cause of the fire is not yet known and the RCMP major crime unit is leading the investigation. It’s not known why that unit of the RCMP is investigating.
Fontaine said Mounties are waiting for a findings from a fire investigator with the Alberta Office of the Fire Commission.
“What will be really key is that official report from the fire investigator in order to help us determine whether this is a suspicious fire or non-suspicious — in essence, criminal or non-criminal,” Fontaine said.
RCMP said Friday members from the local Breton detachment are also investigating the fatal fire.
Buck Lake is located about 130 kilometres southwest of Edmonton in the Drayton Valley region.