What could have been a tragedy turned out to be a good news story, thanks to an alert tenant, two RCMP officers and the fire department.
On Friday, February 6 at about 10 a.m. a smoke alarm alerted a tenant on Govenlock Place to call 9.1.1. The first people to attend to the call were two RCMP officers, Const. Sean Heidman and Cpl. Joe Holmes and Fire Chief Steve Sorensen.
Const. Heidman tried to get into the upstairs of the home but the sliding glass door was locked, so he got a sledge hammer from his cruiser and broke in. The house was full of smoke from a burning pot on the stove and an semi-unconscious man was laying on the floor. The RCMP grabbed the man by the wrist and pulled him to safety on the deck.
The unidentified man had suffered some sort of medical condition.
Sorensen, who arrived just as the officers did, said they spent quite a bit of time with the man accessing his condition, giving him oxygen and waiting for the ambulance crew to arrive.
“He passed out from a medical condition and the pot caught on fire. He was lucky the tenant was home and the smoke alarms worked,” said Sorensen.
There was no one else in the home at the time.
Staff Sergeant Jeff McArthur has praise for the two officers on the scene.
“They suffered a little smoke inhalation but they’re fine,” said McArthur. “It was pretty good performance that’s for sure.”
It is not known the condition of the elderly man, but McArthur said he thinks he is okay.
Sorensen reminds people to check their smoke alarms to ensure they are working and that multiple alarms in a home are connected.
“In this case the tenant knew something was going on,” said Sorensen.
Smoke alarms and visible addresses are crucial to safety and for emergency crews to aid residents when necessary, said Sorensen.