Surrey men share story of saving neighbour from house explosion

Two Surrey men are sharing their story after being thrust into heroism when their neighbour’s house exploded Friday afternoon.

A two-storey house was fully engulfed in flames when emergency crews reached the scene on Jersey Drive in Cloverdale around 4:30 p.m. But they weren’t the first to arrive.

Firefighters are professionals, with professional-grade equipment and training. Jared Rempel and Steve Appleyard are not firefighters, but that didn’t matter when the fire erupted from a house on their street, with someone still inside.

The force of the explosion sent glass across the front lawn and street, with neighbours reporting debris on their driveways and in their gardens. Some also reported witnessing the roof of the house lift off and drop back down, while the chimney along the side was nearly blown off.

Appleyard says he was outdoors, smoking a cigarette, when the shockwave shifted the smoke in the air.

“There really was no thought. I never met Jared before that night. When I pulled up, and I saw the house was on fire, it was just instinct, I guess,” said Appleyard. “Just run and try to see if there’s any help I could give.”

“My heart was beating pretty fast, obviously, at that point, then it all goes very quick from there on,” recalled Rempel.

The two men heard someone screaming inside the Cloverdale home, but the door was blocked by a part of the roof that had fallen after the explosion.

Touring The Leader Spirit through the wreckage over the weekend, Appleyard remembered his actions.

“We were pulling this out of the way, this whole side was up in flames, and when I grabbed it I didn’t think about it ’til I felt how hot it was.”

By then, the occupant was up against the glass door, but it was locked, and he was too badly injured to open it. That’s when Rempel ripped the door off its hinges, and the two men pulled the occupant out to safety.

“He still thought he was on fire when he came out, and the clothes had half been blown off, half been melted onto his body. He was wearing a big set of over-ear headphones that had kind of fused together around the bottom of his neck that I was able to peel off him,” Rempel described.

Paramedics later airlifted him to hospital.

Appleyard says he has been in touch with the victim’s family, who say he’s still in critical but stable condition. Doctors are reportedly waiting for his swelling to reduce before they begin surgery.

Rempel and Appleyard are loath to take any credit for their courage, instead wanting to highlight the work done by others, like the other neighbours who helped to console and care for the victim until help arrived, and the professional first responders.

“It’s amazing how quick the fire department got there,” said Appleyard. “Remarkable. Within the first five, 10 minutes, they were showing up doing their thing, helping with the patient. Police were there right away also. And the paramedics — they were awesome too. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a helicopter scrambled that quick.”

With a few days since Friday’s events having passed, the two men are still trying to come to grips with their actions.

“I was kind of kicking myself in the head, like, ‘I got kids at home, what if I got stuck?’ But, again, in the moment, you don’t think about those things. You just do what you got to do,” said Appleyard.

“I would do it again,” said Rempel. “You just hope somebody would do the same for you.”

Authorities have not shared details of the victim’s relationship to the house nor what may have caused the explosion and fire. A joint investigation by Surrey Fire Services and the Surrey RCMP’s SPOSU General Investigation Unit is underway.

One thing is certain: forged in bravery, Rempel and Appleyard have a bond for life.

—With files from Jan Schuermann