Neighbour pulls senior from burning home
LINDSAY — Pat Elvery says she and her husband never travel Lester Drive when they leave their Riverwood Park subdivision, but their decision to go that way likely saved an elderly woman caught in a mobile home fire early Sunday afternoon.
A 93-year-old woman, who was alone in the home at the time of the fire, suffered burns and was taken to Ross Memorial Hospital for treatment.
Fire officials have pegged the damage at about $200,000 and are still investigating the cause of the blaze that claimed a family cat.
Pat, whose husband, Robert, entered the burning home and pulled the woman from the flames, says it was only by chance that they came across the fire.
“We had been to church in the morning and were heading back a second time,” she said.
Robert is a part of the production of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian’s Living Christmas Tree. He was going to work on the sound system and Pat was to put bulbs in the tree.
“When we got to the bottom of the street, my husband said ‘hey, that mobile is on fire.’ What if somebody is in it?”
He knocked on a neighbour’s door, he said, and asked them to call 911, then he went around to the back door.
“(Robert) has been there before, so he knew to go to the back door.” Pat said her husband knocked on the door and heard someone yelling. “He said an arm was reaching out and it was the old lady. He pulled her out. Everything was on fire inside.”
When Pat saw him approaching with the woman, she rushed to help them get her into their van. It wasn’t long before an ambulance and fire trucks arrived on the scene, she said.
The woman seemed confused and in shock, Pat said. She asked her if she was making lunch, but the woman couldn’t recall.
Robert says he knows the family who lives there and talks to them often, but they weren’t home at the time. The couple stayed for a bit, then managed to finally get to the church.
“We made it,” Pat said, “but we stunk of smoke.”