A Kelowna man was recently honoured for rescuing another man from a burning vehicle back in July.
On the night of July 20, Rod Tribiger went for a drive in the the Central Okanagan’s backcountry.
“I used to live out here, so this is kind of my backyard and coming up here was just a normal thing,” said Tribiger.
The Okanagan Forest Task Force member says shortly into his night cruise, he noticed something out of the ordinary – a truck fully engulfed in flames.
“I happened upon a truck that was engulfed in flames, it was pulling a little trailer,” said Tribiger. “At first I thought it was an abandoned truck.”
His initial suspicion was wrong.
“Then it dawned on me — I wonder if there’s someone in there — that’s when everything happened,” Tribiger explained.
“I just ran up and opened the door and sure enough there was a guy reclined into the cab of the truck — it was kind of a double cab, and he was out, sleeping.”
It was a perfect example of being at the right place at the right time. Tribiger managed to save a life that evening, something he’ll never forget.
“I just opened the door and woke him up I had to kind of shake him. He was in what I think was a deep sleep,” said Tribiger. “He sat up and was shocked at the surroundings because they would have been a lot different than when he went to sleep.”
Once the man, who is believed to have been unhoused was brought to safety, other members of the Okanagan Forest Task Force arrived at the scene.
“At the time, a lot of fire departments, they had certain areas they couldn’t cover and being way up in the back country is one of those areas,” said OFTF member, Kane Blake.
“I actually called the Ellison Fire Department to see if they could bring a water tender to fill up our truck to go extinguish a truck fire.”
According to the OFTF, incidents like this are not uncommon. This year alone they’ve responded to 10 vehicle fires in the Okanagan backcountry.
“It happens, if someone’s not watching it’s an opportunist or vehicle malfunction, something like that,” said Blake.
As for the man in the vehicle, he appeared to be fine after the incident. He and Tribiger subsequently went out for dinner.
Tribiger was also recently honoured by the Canadian Humanitarian Association, but for him it was about the life that he saved that night.
“I think right place right time, I don’t know if he would have come out of that alive,” said Tribiger.