VANCOUVER — Police and fire investigators spent Sunday at the scene of a deadly fire in a south Vancouver home that claimed the life of a man in a downstairs suite while, upstairs, a family was mourning the loss of their matriarch in a bizarre accident.
The family of 75-year old Naranjan Dhesi had gathered at her home Saturday afternoon after they were told she had died from injuries she suffered when a bus on a hill rolled back and crushed her outside the Ross Street Sikh Temple.
Dhesi was dragged under the tour bus as she was lining up with others to go on a road trip to Harrison Hot Springs.
Her granddaughter, Gurkian Dhesi, on Sunday said the family was in her grandmother’s home to mourn her loss when they were told to evacuate the area because of the fire in the downstairs rental suite. Dhesi’s home is in the 900 block of East 63rd Avenue.
“It is really a tough time for us right now,” Gurkian said.
She said there were two females and one male who lived in the rental basement suite.
“She [Naranjan Dhesi] was a very good lady. She was a very nice mother and grandmother,” relative Rajwant Toor added.
“You can’t imagine the pain,” she said. “We find out our grandmother has been run over, and then there is this fire in the suite and they tell us someone inside has died.
“This is a sad time for us.”
An employee of Burnaby-based Premier Pacific Coach Lines, who answered the phone Sunday, said he couldn’t comment on the incident involving the company bus outside the Ross Street Sikh Temple.
“I can’t comment because we don’t know anything at this point,” he said. “There’s an investigation. We know nothing at this point.”
Dhesi was with a group of seniors heading to the Fraser Valley on a charter. The bus rolled back a block before it finally came to a stop.
When Dhesi was being put in an ambulance, it was believed her injuries were not life-threatening.
But she died on the way to hospital. Three others suffered minor injuries in the freak bus incident.
Members of Dhesi’s family went to her home after hearing of the tragedy and were in the upstairs portion of the two-storey residence when the fire broke out about 4:30 on Saturday.
Family members said Sunday that they have not been apprised of the full extent of the fire damage in the home.
Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services spokesman Capt. Gabe Roder said officials have a lot of work ahead to try to determine the cause of the fire. “The investigators are going back into the house [Sunday],” he said. “They will go through the house and find out what happened.”
