To St.Albert Fire Services, St. Albert RCMP members and the EMS attendants who attended a fire at my residence on March 7 at 1 p.m. I want to say, “thank you for doing what you do!”
I was working on a Tidy Tank in the back of my pickup. My wife and daughter had just arrived at home from a local shopping trip. As I worked on the tank something terrible went wrong. Fuel spraying out of the top of the pump soaked my clothing from head to toe. I reached over to shut off the power to the pump when there was a spark. My wife was walking towards me with a coffee and watched me become completely engulfed in fire. Due to my training I knew what to do. Stop, drop and roll (for your life) I jumped into my neighbour’s yard and started rolling. My daughter was on the phone with 911 giving them the information that they required. My wife came to me and put the fire out that was remaining on my chest.
The RCMP were the first to arrive. I do not know exactly how many officers were there but they were amazing. They secured the area and kept everyone away from my truck which was now completely engulfed in fire. I remember three officers came to me and carried me away from the truck for my safety and they stayed with me telling me that I was going to be OK.
St. Albert Fire Rescue arrived in about three minutes. They immediately started to extinguish the fire. Due to the amount of fuel that had spilled, it was a difficult fire to put out (from what I understand).
EMS arrived right after fire services. I had three EMT attendants who were awesome. I can’t say enough about them. They looked after my burns and kept me calm.
I want to say to the RCMP of St. Albert, thank you so, so much for doing what you do every day. As far as I am concerned all of you are superheroes. To the St. Albert Fire Services, thank you for doing what you do. To the EMT's thank you.
I can’t say enough thank yous to you all. I have spoken to one RCMP officer that was there that day and I shook his hand and said thank you. There were so many first responders who were there that day I can’t find all of you but if you see me, please approach me so I can shake your hand and say thank you.
Chris Litzgus, St. Albert
