A newly widowed 71-year-old woman ran through a crowd of stunned onlookers to pull a man out of a burning RV in Duncan over the weekend, a heroic act the victim’s family says likely kept him from dying.
The fire broke out at the Duncan RV Park on Boys Road at around 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
David Munce, 75, was inside when his mobile home became engulfed in flames.
Two trailers down, Suzanne Racine saw the blaze and leapt into action, running into the home and helping Munce get out. Moments later, the home erupted in a loud explosion.
Photo courtesy Mary Crocker
The victim is now in an induced coma in Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria with severe burns, but his sister says he surely would have died without Racine’s intervention.
“I love her because she’s our hero,” said Donna Liptak.
But Racine — whose husband died just 10 days earlier — says she only did what anyone else would do.
“I didn’t think of nothing, to me it’s normal,” she told CHEK News on Wednesday. “I couldn’t sleep with myself at night if I would have let that man die, so I just had to.”
Racine said she was operating on pure instinct.
“Something tells me to go, and I just go, and I’m just happy that he’s alive.”
Jeff Lawrence
Skye Ryan
