No injuries in North Shore pickup truck fire after bystanders lent a helping hand

A Good Samaritan who helped the driver of a pickup truck get out after the vehicle caught fire on the North Shore on Tuesday night says he’s just happy no one was hurt.

Kamloops Fire Rescue responded to the vehicle fire near Tranquille Road and Royal Avenue at about 9:45 p.m., briefly closing the road to allow first responders room to extinguish the flames.

According to Chris Pretula, KFR captain, the pickup truck driver had just finished fuelling at the nearby Canco gas station when he noticed “what he thought was steam” coming out of the truck and pulled over.

Henry Lubbe said at that moment, his family was driving by and noticed the vehicle was on fire with someone still inside.

“I thought it was strange that there was still a person in the vehicle,” Lubbe said.

At the same time, he said he noticed another bystander run into a nearby liquor store, and believes this person went to call 911.

“We pulled around, I jumped out of the car, I ran over there and I saw the gentleman," Lubbe said.

"I said, ‘Hey, your car is on fire, you need to get out,’ And he's like, ‘I know, but I can’t — I have a bad hip.’”

Lubbe said he helped the man remove some items from the vehicle. By this point, the fire was growing.

“Flames were starting to shoot up and the fire was hot enough that I had to turn my back away from it,” he said.

Lubbe said he helped the driver get out of the truck. At that point, he said he was joined by his partner and mother-in-law, who helped get the group — and his own vehicle — further away from the blaze and the smoke.

"It wasn't long after we got away from the vehicle that's something else sort of fizzled out, and then the fire really took off," he said.

"Between the time that happened was maybe a minute, a minute and a half."

Lubbe gave credit to the other bystander who helped by contacting first responders.

“There wasn't really anybody else around," he said. "It just seemed like a strange situation and we needed to make sure that the gentleman was OK. We’re glad everyone is fine.”

Pretula confirmed there were no injuries suffered by the driver.

"The guy helped him out [of the car] because he's an older guy with a sore hip, and he's doing fine,” Pretula said.

KFR extinguished the fire before 10 p.m. and Tranquille Road was quickly reopened to traffic.