‘Thanks for saving my life’

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This article was published 15/11/2024 (356 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Lorne Mansky did what he hopes anyone would do.

The 55-year-old information technology specialist and other bystanders saved two men from a wheelchair-accessible van after it caught fire Thursday on a Southdale street.

The van was engulfed in flames before firefighters arrived.

“What kind of a person would I be if I just stood by? Frankly, if something had happened to those folks and I didn’t do everything I could, I probably wouldn’t be able to sleep at night,” he said.

Mansky, who was driving to a see a client, saw the van at a four-way stop on Beaverhill Boulevard just before 9 a.m. and realized there was a fire under it.

“A sizeable cardboard box… got trapped in the undercarriage and my best guess would be the exhaust system ignited it,” said Mansky.

“The driver was driving along unaware, because there was nothing at that point showing from their perspective.”

Mansky said he tried to flag down the van by honking his horn, waving and flashing his lights, but the driver was unaware as he turned down Park Terrace Drive.

Mansky made an abrupt turn and chased the van, coming close to cutting the driver off to get him to stop, he said, and shouted that the vehicle was on fire.

The driver tried to remove the box by reversing the van, said Mansky, but wasn’t able to get it back in gear, and the on-board fire extinguisher didn’t work.

Mansky found a broomstick in a nearby yard and another bystander used it to push the burning box from under the vehicle, but the fire had spread.

The driver opened the van hood, and the flames accelerated, Mansky said.

“Now the entire engine compartment was engulfed in flames, five, six, seven feet tall,” he said.

One of the passengers, who was not in a wheelchair, managed to get out on his own, but the other two men were strapped down in heavy chairs, said Mansky.

The van driver managed to get the passenger in the rear down the ramp, but when the group tried to free the second passenger, the ramp’s electrical system stopped working.

Mansky had to hand-crank a pump to adjust the ramp for the other man to make it out.

“Flames were running through, but thankfully there was no real amount of smoke coming through the cabin at that point… We got that last individual out and other bystanders were able to get those chairs escorted off a safe distance,” he said.

“It wasn’t very long after we got the people out that the fire breached the wall and was then inside the cabin… a minute or two at most.”

Mansky said during the rescue, he thought little about the potential danger, though he was mindful of the amount of fuel likely to be in the van.

“(Afterward), one individual rolled up, or I came up to him, to make sure he’s OK. He said he wants to shake my hand and his exact words were ‘Thanks for saving my life.’ At that point, I go ‘Wow, I guess this was pretty serious,’” he said.

“In the moment, you don’t really think like that.”

Crews arrived about 10 minutes after the fire began and doused its flames, said Mansky.

WFPS spokeswoman Terryn Shiells, who confirmed bystanders got the passengers out, said firefighters arrived at about 8:52 a.m. Thursday.

No one was reported injured, she said, and added that the vehicle was not a Winnipeg Transit Plus van.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca