Tobique First Nation resident says neighbours pulled his son from burning home

TOBIQUE, N.B. — A resident of a New Brunswick First Nation is crediting the strength of several band members for saving his 12-year-old son as they struggled to exit their burning home.

Daniel Saulis said he was struggling to maintain consciousness before several young men in their 20s broke the window of his burning Tobique First Nation home early Sunday and hauled he and his son Hunter out.

“If it wasn’t for them, I don’t think we would have got out,” he said Wednesday.

Saulis said a porch fire had spread into the kitchen, and the doors out of the house wouldn’t open or were blocked by heat, so they retreated into a bedroom and attempted to open a window.

He and Hunter heard people outside asking if they needed help, and he told them they did.

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The heat made breathing difficult, and he couldn’t lift his heavy-set son out of the window on his own, he said.

“I couldn’t have got Hunter out, he’s too heavy. I wouldn’t have been able to get him out alone,” said Saulis, who is a wood harvester.

He said two or three of the men broke the window and then lifted them out, sheltering them in a vehicle and bringing them to a hospital for smoke inhalation treatment.

Saulis said that the men were coming back from a dance and saw the flames coming from the home.

He said that Houston Bear, one of the men who rescued them, used his arm strength to lift Hunter — who the father says weighs over 90 kilograms.

“Houston is a big boy. He had ahold of Hunter’s arms and he wouldn’t let go for nothing,” said Saulis.

The Canadian Press