Passerby Helps Rescue Elderly Couple From Kelowna House Fire

Fire crews putting out the house fire Saturday night on Saucier Road. (Photo Credit: KelownaNow.com)

A couple is safe and uninjured after a passerby helped get them away from their burning house in southeast Kelowna on Saturday night.

Wayne Dorman was dropping someone off when he first saw the smoke, but at first he thought someone was having a barbecue. On his way back, however, he noticed more smoke in the area and called 9-1-1 at about 8:15 p.m., though he couldn’t find where exactly where it was coming from. Once he turned a corner, however, he could see the black plume of smoke coming from a home in the 1600 block of Saucier Road.

Photo Credit: KelownaNow.com

Dorman quickly stopped the vehicle, as did another couple driving behind. As the owner of dog training school, Dorman had six canines in the back of his car. He left the air conditioning running and asked one of the people behind to watch his vehicle and as he and the other went through the orchard to the fire.

“When we came across the house, the garage was already engulfed in flames,” said Dorman. A couple was running towards from another farm, who Dorman says was the daughter and son-in-law of the people inside the burning home. The daughter said that she didn’t know where her parents were, and that they must be in the home.

Photo Credit: Wayne Dorman

Dorman grabbed a big rock and threw it through the glass door as smoke was entering the home. He and the daughter went inside and they found the mother, an elderly woman. “There was screaming going on, and crying, and ‘Get out of the house,’” said Dorman. “I just grabbed the woman and I picked her up—she was barefoot—and I carried her through the front door.”

After he’d gotten the mother out, Dorman says that they found the father and led him safely out as well. He thought the couple must’ve been asleep and didn’t know about the fire. Dorman phoned 9-1-1 again, but the firefighters were coming around the corner as he called. At this point, he left the scene to get back to his dogs.

Photo Credit: KelownaNow.com

He said that he hadn’t even thought about the heat and the flames when it was happening. “You just run in,” said Dorman. “When you get home, you think about the glass, you think about the repercussions. You think about what the firemen go through. You think of the smoke.”

Firefighters at the scene found the attached two-car garage fully involved. The garage and both vehicles inside were destroyed, but crews prevented the flames from spreading to the house. Platoon Captain Steve Wallick said that the elderly couple was assessed by an ambulance team on the scene, but had no injuries and weren’t given any treatment.

The cause of Saturday night’s blaze is unknown, but the Kelowna Fire Department does not consider it suspicious.

Photo Credit: KelownaNow.com

Photo Credit: KelownaNow.com