Police identified the victim as 67-year-old Wallace Deklyn. He was pronounced dead at Griffin Hospital.
The state medical examiner’s office said Thursday Deklyn died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Investigators also believe Deklyn started the fire.
Seymour Deputy Fire Marshal Timm Willis said Thursday the fire was intentionally set. There were actually two fires started on opposite sides of the structure, Willis said.
The property where he lived had been in the foreclosure process at various times dating back to 2008, civil court records show.
The following story was published Wednesday and updated throughout the day.
Police aren’t revealing too many details about what may have happened, including how the victim was shot.
“Right now it’s too early to say exactly what happened here. That’s all going to be determined through this dual investigation between the fire and the gunshot wound,” said Seymour Police Deputy Chief Paul Satkowski.
Here is a video interview with the deputy chief:
Police and First Selectman Kurt Miller said the public was never in danger, including staff at students at the nearby Bungay School.
Miller said school district leaders were in constant contact with police department leadership during the incident.
Satkowski said the town’s fire marshal’s office will work with state fire investigators to determine the cause and origin of the blaze.
At the same time, Seymour detectives will try to figure out how Deklyn was shot. Police are in contact with the state attorney’s office as well, which is routine in death investigations.
Police believe Deklyn was living alone, though that too is under investigation, the deputy chief said.
Satkowski indicated police had gathered information regarding some type of “event” with the victim, but he could not elaborate.
“It’s an isolated incident. During the course of this fire, and being on scene here, we received additional information that I cannot release at this time. All that is part of figuring out what took place here,” Satkowski said.
The deputy chief said to his knowledge police had never been called to the address previously. In addition, there were no witnesses reported, the deputy chief said.
As of 10 a.m. firefighters were still dumping water on the two-bedroom house, which sits just past the intersection with Bungay Terrace. They were still dousing hot spots within the house at 1:30 p.m.
The town’s emergency services received 911 calls reporting something on fire at 7:22 a.m.
Firefighters didn’t have a specific address at first but tracked it down.
“Our first units on scene found heavy fire in the back of the building,” said Seymour Fire Chief John Cronin Jr. “They made an aggressive interior attack, and found one victim just inside the front door in a front room. We removed him, turned him over the EMS and he was transported to the hospital.”
Seymour Deputy Fire Marshal Timm Willis said Deklyn’s heart was not beating when he was pulled from the house. Emergency medical personnel tried to revive him.
Authorities believe he was the only person inside the house.
Here is an interview with the deputy fire marshal:
Firefighters were hampered by the sheer volume of things inside.
“This house is particularly challenging because it is more like a hoarder’s situation,” Chief Cronin said. “There is quite a bit of personal items inside the house. Almost every room is cluttered, so the firefighters had a difficult time moving around in there.”
There was so much fire damage, there was concern the house would collapse.
“Most of the roof burned away, but we still had stubborn pockets of fire,” Cronin said. “The house is a complete loss.”
Willis said when he first arrived there was heavy fire on the right, rear side of the house — with additional fire in the basement.
“I don’t know if it was separate fires. I can’t speculate at this point,” Willis said.
Investigators will probably be on the scene through the rest of the day.
Bungay Road was open to alternating traffic as of 5 p.m. Police advised they may have to close it again if the need arises.
Machinery will be brought to the scene in order to remove the wrecked parts of the house so that police and fire investigators can enter the structure and continue the investigation.