A 61-year-old North Vancouver man is dead following a house fire Tuesday morning at 2831 Wembley Drive.
District of North Vancouver firefighters raced to the scene around 10:30 a.m. after receiving multiple 9-1-1 calls from neighbours who reported heavy smoke coming from an upstairs area of the house.
Fire crews arrived and found two bedrooms in the home engulfed in thick, black smoke and one window already blown out of the house, said Mike Cairns, assistant fire chief with District of North Fire and Rescue Services.
Firefighters discovered the homeowner unresponsive in one bedroom, carried him outside to the front yard and immediately began CPR. He was rushed to Lions Gate Hospital by ambulance where he was pronounced dead.
No official cause of death has been released, but preliminary indications are the man likely died of smoke inhalation.
Fire investigators, the North Vancouver RCMP and the BC Coroner’s Service are all investigating.
Investigators don’t yet know what started the fire, but so far there are no signs of anything suspicious, said Cairns.
The fire appears to have started in the bedroom, where most of the fire damage occurred.
Cairns said there were no working smoke detectors in the home, adding it’s important that people check the devices and change batteries in smoke detectors that are not wired in to the electrical system.
“Smoke can be very toxic and can knock you down in a second,” he said.
Neighbours confirmed the identity of the homeowner as John Welch, who had lived in the neighbourhood for about 20 years.
Welch worked in the insurance department of the University of British Columbia for over a decade and had retired three years ago.
Ron Holton, chief risk officer for the university who worked with Welch, said colleagues were shocked and saddened at the news this week.
“We’re all feeling how unfair it is. He’d looked forward to his retirement and spending more time in his garden,” said Holton. “He wanted to have time to travel.
“John had a wonderful sense of humour” and was well-respected throughout the UBC community, said Holton, adding he had kept in touch with former colleagues.
Neighbours said Welch lived alone and had had some health problems in recent years. But Holton said he had been well enough to attend the department’s Christmas lunch in December.
Cairns said firefighters did all they could to save him. “They did a great job of getting him out of the house quickly,” he said. “These are the tougher calls for sure. They are the ones that stay with you.”
