Off-Duty BC RCMP Officer Saves 3 Adults From Burning House

Off-Duty BC RCMP Officer Saves 3 Adults From Burning House
An RCMP police vehicle is shown in this April 28, 2023 file photo. Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press
Marnie Cathcart
Updated:
0:00

An officer of the Lake Cowichan RCMP in B.C. has been hailed a hero by his peers.

The off-duty law enforcement officer from the North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP detachment saved the lives of three adults from a burning home during the early morning hours of July 9, the RCMP said in a news release. The statement doesn’t provide the name of the officer.

At approximately 4:41 a.m. local time, a neighbour called 911 and reported he saw smoke coming from a home on Cowichan Avenue near King George Road.

According to police, the neighbour banged on the door in an attempt to wake the occupants of the house; however, no one answered the door.

By happenstance, an RCMP officer was driving past the home on his way to work. He gained access to the home and found two men inside. After waking the men, the officer accompanied them out of the burning building. One of the men then told the officer a female occupant remained inside the home.

The off-duty officer returned inside the house and rescued the woman.

“Fortunately, the officer was able to get everyone out to safety, as the home became fully engulfed in flames shortly after the third occupant was removed. All three adults were checked by Emergency Health Services, and no serious injuries were sustained,” the RCMP said.

“The officer’s actions and bravery is commendable,” Lita Watson, detachment commander of Lake Cowichan RCMP, said in the release.

“He put his own life in danger, without even a second thought, to help those people who would have been severely injured.”

She added she also wanted to “recognize and acknowledge the efforts made by the neighbour who tried their best to rouse the occupants of that home and called for emergency assistance.”

“These neighbourly acts really speak to the close knit and supportive community we live in here in Lake Cowichan.”

Neighbours

Tara Fraser, a neighbour who lives two houses away, said she heard noise.
“I heard a loud bang over the running air conditioner and left my room around 4:30 a.m. to see what was going on,” Ms. Fraser told local reporters.

“I was met with a curious orange glow from my upstairs bathroom window. I walked towards it almost daydream-like and pulled the curtains to see huge flames shooting up above the tree line between Mike’s property and the house next to me.”

Ms. Fraser set up a GoFundMe for the family, whom local Chek News identified as Mike Bell and his son Travis Bell. By press time, $2,860 had been raised of a $5,000 goal.
The community has also set up donations for cash and non-perishable goods, and a bottle drive is underway for the family.
“They have lost everything as the entire structure was swallowed up in flames. Anything will help this family. Thank you for any and all kindness at time when the world can be hard on all of us,” said Ms. Fraser.

The men said they were in shock following the massive fire that destroyed their home.

“We went to bed last night all comfortable and nice and this morning we were being jarred out of bed by a saviour, a guy that came in and rescued us out of this fire,” Lake Cowichan resident Mike Bell told Chek News. “We didn’t even know the fire was going.”

His son said the RCMP officer woke him up.

“Yeah, when he was waking me up, my door was closed and he said, ‘This is the RCMP get out of the house,’ and the whole roof was already on fire,” Mr. Travis Bell said.

“One more minute, like when we got out to the sidewalk, the windows blew and all the black smoke billowed out the windows, that quick,” said Mr. Mike Bell.

“Totally, yeah, we would have died,” his son added.

The family had no clothes and no possessions when they escaped the fire, but nearby neighbours who heard explosions came to help. Large trees and forest surrounded the house and neighbours reported that the house went up quickly.

Lake Cowichan Volunteer Fire Department did not return requests for comment by press time, but Chief Doug Knott told local news the family had no insurance. The fire chief also said the former owner of the home, the late John Bell, was a hobbyist target shooter and there were a couple of pounds of black powder and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition in the basement.

The investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing; however, at this time it is not deemed suspicious. Mr. Knott said the fire appears to have started where there was wiring for a greenhouse behind the home.