Fire destroys van - May. 20, 2010
Vern Faulkner/Courier
A St. Stephen firefighter douses the flames that engulfed this van Thursday afternoon. The driver and his wheelchair bound passenger escaped injury.
By KATHY BOCKUS
kathy@stcroixcourier.ca
ST. STEPHEN – Ricky Hachey has had better days. Thursday, May 20, wasn’t one of them.
The 37-year-old Waweig resident watched from the porch of Lonicera Hall as a freak fire destroyed both his van and his custom-made wheelchair.
Stacey Atkinson, Hachey’s driver and home care worker, was driving the 1997 Explorer van. He had just stopped at the Royal Bank where he and a passing friend noted there seemed to be a smell of Prestone coming from the van.
“I said I’d get Ricky’s dad to check it out because he’s a mechanic,” said Atkinson.
Atkinson was driving the van up Marks Street with Hachey sitting in his wheelchair behind him when some young men lounging in front of an apartment building yelled at him that the vehicle was on fire.
He whipped the vehicle into their parking lot off Union Street. His first thought was to get Hachey out of the van.
“It went up fast,” said Atkinson. “Flames were shooting out the front. If I had driven even a little bit further I don’t think I would have got Ricky out in time.”
He put a shaken Hachey down under a nearby tree. Some passersby helped carry Hachey to Lonicera Hall and called his parents who were in town on errands.
They rushed to the scene and searched for their son before being waved toward the porch. After hugging his son, and offering reassuring words, Hachey left to speak to police while his wife sat down beside their son.
“I saw the black smoke and said something’s on fire,” she said, her hand pressed to her chest, adding she never dreamed it would be the van containing her disabled son.
The elder Hachey said the van was insured. An RCMP officer at the scene said he wasn’t sure if the insurance covered the wheelchair lift valued at $7,000.
Hachey said the long and involved process for a new custom-made wheelchair for his son had started a year ago and the new chair is due for delivery May 26. Firemen were able to retrieve a bag containing the younger Hachey’s belonging. His father was relieved to find Hachey’s passport and some other items unharmed.
Hachey had expressed concern about some candlepin bowling balls, but the small balls were damaged in the fire.
Advertisements
