Our thoughts and prayers are with the Day family.
Man dies in fire days after wife’s death
By Sharon Boase
The Hamilton Spectator(Mar 5, 2007)
A prominent Milton businessman died in a devastating house fire early Saturday that reduced the home he and his late wife had lovingly built to a few walls, rubble and ash.
Bertram (Bert) Day, 88, was discovered dead in the hallway of his home on Steeles Avenue near Tremaine Road after fire crews managed to beat back flames that destroyed the antique-filled home.
Day, the father of longtime Milton Councillor Rick Day, had just attended a function last week honouring his wife, Marguerite, who died Feb. 18 from pneumonia and complications from Alzheimer’s disease.
Day said that because his father suffered from short-term memory loss, he kept asking after his wife’s death, “Where’s Marguerite?”
“Nature played a cruel trick on my father,” Day said. “He went through the shock of hearing about mom’s death over and over.
“We think he may have stayed in the house looking for my mother.”
Because of his mother’s condition, the home had been “Alzheimer’s proofed” as well as child proofed given that one of the caregivers looking after the couple has two small children, Rick Day said.
“It’s just a mystery how the fire could have started,” he said in an interview yesterday. “The fire marshal is working on it but, so far, it’s a mystery to them too. … There wasn’t a match in the house.”
Day, who represents Ward 1, said there were 16 working smoke detectors. There were no smokers anywhere near the house, no working fireplaces, no natural gas or propane, no jerry cans of gasoline, no car in the garage, no fuses, no oil lamps or space heaters.
Firefighters, who were alerted just after 4 a.m. Saturday, risked their lives to search for Day, said Milton Fire Chief Larry Brassard.
But after entering the home, they were pushed back by a wall of flames.
Some 40 firefighters worked in extreme cold and strong winds, bringing the fire under control in about two hours, Brassard said.
Day was thankful that the regular caregiver with two young children was away. The woman looking after his father tried to save him, but was beaten back by flames.
When she discovered that the phone lines were down from the fire, she ran barefoot to the closest neighbour.
Although the Ontario Fire Marshal’s office is investigating, Halton regional police Staff Sergeant Jeff Siemon said there was nothing to indicate the fire was suspicious.
Bert and Marguerite both became interested in antiques after building the Mohawk Inn in Campbellville, which they operated for many years. They designed and built the home themselves, with loving attention to detail. They filled it with items they found at auctions, all of which Bert refinished himself.
“That house was like the story of their lives,” said Day’s wife, Karen. “They built beautiful collections of Canadiana, glass and pine furniture. That house was like a friend to us because it was so full of all these lovely, magical things.”
Bert worked for army intelligence during the Second World War, tracking solar-powered, airborne bombs launched from Tokyo and carried to Western Canada and the U.S. via jet stream, Day said. He studied forestry engineering at the University of Toronto, working as a professor, forester and in mining and timber.
Marguerite, who died a month before her 87th birthday, studied household science and maths at U of T before marrying Bert in 1941.
The Days are survived by three children and several grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at a later date.