Fire Neighbour says the occupant threw himself into a pile of snow after suffering burns

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Tammy Scott-Wallace
Telegraph-Journal

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APOHAQUI - A 61-year-old Apohaqui man is in the burn unit of the Saint John Regional Hospital after fire ravaged his home Monday morning.

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Tammy Scott-Wallace/Telegraph-Journal

Tom deWinter, 61, is in the burn unit at the Saint John Regional Hospital after being caught in a fire that destroyed his Apohaqui home around 7:45 a.m. Monday. After the flames died, firefighters worked hard to put out hot spots.

Neighbours say Tom deWinter was living alone in his modular home on Sunset Avenue just off Riverview Drive East, formerly Route 1 to Saint John. The RCMP called the fire marshal to investigate the cause of the blaze that completely destroyed the residence, Sgt. Bruce Reid of the Sussex RCMP confirmed.

As of late Monday afternoon the cause was still unknown, Reid said.

He confirmed the homeowner was in the hospital with undetermined burn injuries, but neighbours said the man was seriously hurt.

"I heard the paramedics radio ahead (to the hospital) that he had burns to 90 per cent of his body," said next-door neighbour Melissa Eagles.

At around 7:45 a.m., as she was helping her three children out the door to meet the school bus, Eagles saw fire coming from the front of the house. Within moments, deWinter tore out of the house in his underwear, she said, and dived into the snow face first to simmer the burns.

He made his way onto the middle of the road where he laid covered in the blankets other neighbours had brought him until an ambulance arrived.

Sussex Fire Chief Bill Wanamaker said paramedics were helping the man when firefighters arrived.

"The paramedics had him on a stretcher. His burns were obvious," Wanamaker said.

Firefighters from Norton, Sussex, Millstream and Belleisle battled the blaze.

"It was fully involved from one end to the other when we got here," Wanamaker said. "Fortunately he made it out of the house on his own when he did."

Well into the late morning firefighters soaked hotspots that continued to smoulder. The front wall of the home remained standing, charred, but the main level of the bungalow was nonexistent, all of its contents burned beyond recognition in what was the basement portion of the house. The attached carport was also destroyed.

Wanamaker said his detachment has not responded to a fire that involved injuries since December of 2007. At that time, four members of the Dunn family in Knightville near Sussex died.

The subdivision where deWinter lives is located just a few kilometres west of Apohaqui's core.

The home was insured, Wanamaker confirmed.