Calgary man who’s come ‘back from the dead’ hopes to help fight California wildfires

A Calgary man who’s battled back from a life-threatening crisis of his own is now hoping he can help people fighting the widespread wildfires in California.

David Stonehouse’s company, VeriMap, has used its homegrown thermal imaging cameras to fly over wildfires in British Columbia for the past two years.

Watch below: Some videos from Global News’ coverage of the California wildfires in the fall of 2018.

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Stonehouse and other members of his team loaded one of their infrared cameras on their specially outfitted company plane to fly to Reno, Nev., on Wednesday.

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They’ll be meeting with a company there that builds large drones, hoping to expand their role in fighting the California wildfires.

Stonehouse is still recovering from when he suffered a massive heart attack as he boarded the company plane for a test flight in October 2016.

“As the doctor said: ‘When I got to you Mr. Stonehouse, you were as dead as it gets,'” Stonehouse said. “They froze me and then I had a stroke. So an incredible team brought me back from the dead.”

Stonehouse is still working on regaining his speech and the use of his right side, now working with a Calgary doctor to see if his thermal imaging technology could help other patients receiving critical care.

Stonehouse feels like a man on a mission as he carries on after his health crisis.

“I’m in the less-than-one-per-cent-survival club, so for whatever reason, I’m here,” Stonehouse said. “It feels good to save lives.”