‘It was horrific’: Vancouver lawyer saves man on fire outside Skytrain station

Police in Vancouver are asking for witnesses to come forward after a man was injured in a fire early Sunday morning.

According to police, the 40-year-old man was found by a passing driver near Main Street and Terminal Avenue, just outside the Main Street-Science World SkyTrain Station, around 2 a.m. Sunday.

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Police say the driver helped put the fire out before calling 9-1-1. However, the victim sustained burns to his upper body and face and was taken to hospital before being released.

“VPD officers are reviewing security cameras in the area to determine how the fire started, and whether it was the result of a crime,” Sgt. Steve Addison said in a statement Monday.

Witnesses to the incident, or people with dashcam footage of the area, are being urged to call the VPD’s Major Crime Section at 604-717-2541.

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‘He needed to not be on fire’: good Samaritan reflects on saving man engulfed in flames

GRAPHIC WARNING: The following details may disturb some readers. 

Andrew Coulthard tells 1130 NewsRadio that he was the passing driver who discovered the man on fire Sunday.

As he was driving, Coulthard says a friend in the car pointed out the scene.

“It took me a second to process what I was seeing, but he was like fully on fire — like fully engulfed in flames, and just running back and forth. And there wasn’t really anybody rushing to him or reacting at all — like there’s cars all over the intersection, people on the sidewalk, but nobody really doing anything,” Coulthard explained.

So he acted.

Coulthard says he pulled the car through a red light and onto the sidewalk.

“As soon as I comprehended that I was seeing somebody on fire, I just knew that he needed to not be on fire. I said to a friend of mine that my ‘caveman brain’ took over,” said Coulthard.

On the curb, he jumped from the vehicle and tried to help the man.

“It looked like his front was on fire, so I tried to get him down on his belly and roll around and get it out… but the flames were really intense and they weren’t going out,” said Coulthard.

That’s when he noticed the man’s jacket was hanging off one arm.

“I grabbed it and just started beating the flames with them until it went out,” Coulthard explained.

“And he was really, really severely burned at that point. Though, I’m not sure how long he’d been on fire for… I’m not sure if there’s anything worse than third-degree [burns], but he was split and cooked. It was horrific looking.”

Coulthard says his friends ran to nearby restaurants to gather water to pour on the burns. He says the group was alarmed that no one else came to help with they waited for paramedics.

He says the whole experience was “surreal” and hard to understand.

“I had some strange dreams that night, and I’ll definitely remember what we saw for a long time.”

Coulthard says someone called him later to let him know that the man would likely survive his injuries.

Reflecting, he says he’s still amazed that he was the one thrown into the situation in the first place.

“Everybody wants to think that they would do the right thing, if presented with an emergency or dangerous situation, but you don’t really know until you’re there. And I was surprised more people weren’t already helping. And I would like to think that that is how anybody would react if they if they saw a situation like that … It’s on all of us that if somebody is suffering if somebody’s in danger then just do what you can.”

—With files from Ben Bouguerra