A 55-year-old man caught in a Burnaby house fire on Halloween night died in hospital early Thursday morning despite dramatic attempts by local firefighters to save him.
Crews responded to calls of smoke coming from a single-storey duplex at 8166 16th Ave. at about 5:30 p.m., according to assistant fire Chief Barry Mawhinney
Hearing from neighbours that the unit was usually occupied, firefighters plunged into thick black smoke to search the unit.
“The patient was found not far from the front door. He was severely burnt and had no pulse, and CPR protocol was initiated,” Mawhinney said.
Firefighters revived him, but the man succumbed to his injuries in the early hours of Thursday morning, according to Burnaby RCMP.
The fire is being investigated, but it isn’t being deemed suspicious, and fire officials don’t believe it was related to Halloween fireworks.
After the man was pulled from the building, the blaze was snuffed out quickly.
“It was a contents fire; it wasn’t structural,” Mawhinney said.
A family of five was displaced from the other half of the duplex, he said, but that unit sustained little damage.
