While he's been hailed as a hero for helping a neighbour out of a burning building, the experience has given Royal City resident David Francoeur a sense of belonging in his new community.
The off-duty RCMP officer was moving car seats from one vehicle to another shortly after midnight on Feb. 12 when he heard a noise coming from a neighbour's home and decided to investigate.
After finding a neighbour on the balcony of a burning home, he got a ladder and convinced the distraught woman not to go back into the house to try and get her two dogs.
Mayor Wayne Wright and Fire Chief Tim Armstrong presented Francoeur with a certificate of recognition on Monday night on behalf of the City of New Westminster.
"At the risk of his own life, he helped one of his neighbours," Wright said.
Francoeur, who moved to the city about a year ago, said the incident highlighted the sense of belonging he feels in New Westminster.
"Right after it happened, I realized how much it made me feel I belong to a new community," he said.
Francoeur said one neighbour held the bottom of he ladder while he helped the woman down from the balcony; others tried to help other residents who lived in the house that was on fire.
"We had a strong circle," he said of residents who gathered after the fire had been extinguished. "It made me realize I knew all my neighbours. It made me quite happy."
Family members accompanied Francoeur, dressed in the RCMP red serge, in council chambers on Monday night for the award presentation.
Meanwhile, fire inspector Brent Joel said the cause of the fire at the Fourth Street home has been attributed to smoking materials, as it began in an area where a resident had been smoking earlier.
"When we reconstructed the fire scene, it pointed back to where she was smoking," he said. "She was really lucky. She was quoted as saying when she woke up, all she saw was a wall of white."
Joel said the fire caused about $150,000 damage to the house. No humans were injured in the fire, but two pet dogs died.
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