State releases name of Amity fire victim

AMITY – The State Fire Marshal’s Office on Tuesday afternoon released the name of a man who died along with his nine dogs after a fire broke out at his home on a rural road in Amity.

State Police spokesman Stephen McCausland said investigators believe Edwin Connelly Jr., 59, was the man who was killed in last week’s fire.

His body has been taken to the state medical examiner’s office in Augusta for positive identification and to determine a cause of death.

Officials had withheld the victim’s name until a relative could be notified. Fire marshal investigators located a relative of Connelly’s in Connecticut Tuesday morning, according to McCausland.

Investigators from the State Fire Marshal’s Office were called to the scene of the blaze on Sunday after a plow operator discovered the fire had happened when he went to plow the man’s driveway.

All that was left of the structure after the blaze was the steel beams the mobile home once sat on.

The home was located at the end of the remote Williams Road. It was about a half-mile from the nearest dwelling.

The home had no electricity but was being heated by a wood stove, which was its only source of heat, according to fire investigators.

The victim was last seen on Thursday and investigators think the fire happened Thursday night.

Investigators were unable to determine the cause of the fire because of the extensive damage, McCausland said Tuesday.

jlbdn@ainop.com

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