Oliver Centennial Park – camping and RV’s ( Wednesday 4:20 pm )

This unit  (damaged by fire)  about 30 years old.  A neighbour says he arrived on the weekend and this camper was here already. Parents and at least one child. Boy about 8-11.

Victim first taken to South Okanagan General Hospital for treatment. Smoke inhalation, likely no burns.

Latest word: child unconscious on a respirator and being transferred to a facility that has specialized services for such an emergency.

Fire Chief Dan Skaros was meeting Ambulances Services officials this afternoon when he smelt smoke and he jumped into his truck and rushed to Centennial Park with an ambulance crew dispatched after a call from 911. Chief Skaros drove into the park and said people were trying to fight the fire without much progress and he was surveying the scene when someone said “there’s a boy in there”. Smoke was billowing up into the trees. Many people just looking on.

He started poking at the windows until he found a large wood dowel and then began to break the glass in a number of windows in the camper trailer. Once he knew someone was trapped he figured they would be in the bed at the back and he smashed the window and put a coat on the jagged glass –  then poking the bed until he aroused a person.

He had asked for a ladder from a nearby camper and he used it to get into the back window and grab the boy. Time went fast and when he turned.. the boy was quickly transferred in the arms of an ambulance attendant and then rushed to hospital. He said the child wiggled in his arms so he is hoping for the best.

Skaros said he was injured a bit but his main concern was the child. Other details not known at this time.