As first-responders, Burnaby fire Capt. Cathy Van-Martin and her wife Krista Harris, a 16-year Abbotsford firefighter, have seen some things.
By now, they’re used to jumping into their turnout gear and rushing to the scene of a fire or car accident.
“Your uniform is your armour, metaphorically speaking – and sometimes really speaking,” Van-Martin told the NOW.
But the couple were without their “armour” this past Boxing Day, when they came upon a mother and her two children slumped, unresponsive in a car spewing exhaust on a dark rural road in Abbotsford.
Van-Martin and Harris, who live in the area, had been on their way home when they drove past the Toyota Corolla, still running, in the 33700 block of Clayburn Road.
“It wasn’t a place that someone would pull over and park; they were not completely off the road,” Van-Martin said.
The couple doubled back, thinking the car had probably been stolen and abandoned.
In the dark, with the exhaust, Van-Martin said it took a moment to make sense of the scene, but the pair jumped into action as soon as a flashlight Harris was carrying revealed three unconscious people inside.
“We took no time to transition into our normal role, but my heart stopped for a beat there when we saw people in the car,” Van-Martin said.
Breaking a window with a hammer, she turned off the ignition and unlocked the vehicle.
Harris pulled the first child, a five-year-old, from the backseat on the driver’s side.
Taking a big breath, Van-Martin then plunged through the same door, crawled across the backseat and retrieved the other child, a three-year-old.
“They were unresponsive and they were not breathing adequately,” she said.
She started ventilating the three-year-old immediately, while Harris went back to the car to get the woman.
Using their one “pocket mask,” the couple then alternated breaths between the two children, deeming them to be the most vulnerable to the toxic fumes.
“We really didn’t even talk. We’ve never worked together. We’re not in the same department, but we knew exactly how to work together there,” Van-Martin said.
Emergency crews were on scene in minutes, and all three family members were rushed to hospital in critical condition.
The mother and the five-year-old were released six days later, however, and the three-year-old was expected to be released this week, according to an Abbotsford Police Department press release.
“We were very relieved when the crews arrived,” Van-Martin said.
Calls involving children always hit first responders hard, she said, but happening upon a life-and-death situation without her metaphorical “armour” on – especially during the holiday season – set this incident apart.
Her thoughts are with the family.
“I can only assume they will have a lot of recovering ahead of them, so we’ve been thinking about them a lot,” she said.
