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Long recovery ahead for victim in Oaklands fire

A Victoria man whose rented bungalow was gutted by fire says he faces a long recovery, including skin grafts to repair severe burns to his arm.
VKA-fire-8135.jpg May 4, 2020
Victoria fire inspectors comb though the blackened interior of a home in the Oaklands neighbourhood. May 4, 2020

A Victoria man whose rented bungalow was gutted by fire says he faces a long recovery, including skin grafts to repair severe burns to his arm.

Michael Wegner and Linda Banh fled their Oaklands home after a grease fire in their kitchen raged out of control on May 4.

Wegner, 57, tried to smother the fire, while Banh, 56, turned off the element. Even as flaming bits of the ceiling fell, Wegner tried to extinguish the fire, while Banh called 911 from the sidewalk.

“I was completely surrounded by fire,” said Wegner, who was recently hired as a department supervisor by Home Depot after he was laid off from his job doing software development at a transportation company due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He fled the house when he heard a neighbour yell: “Get out, get out.”

Victoria Fire was at the scene within minutes and Wegner was taken to Royal Jubilee Hospital with burns to both arms, his right shoulder and the heel of his right foot. Wegner also suffered light burns to the right side of his face and his right ear.

“I have a really bad haircut right now,” he said, speaking by phone from his hospital bed in the burn unit.

On Tuesday, he endured the agonizing, two hour-long process of changing his bandages and removing dead skin, which he said felt like “square dancing lessons” on his arms, “followed by a belt sander.”

The hardest part for Wegner is not being able to see Banh, his partner for the past 15 years, because of visitor restrictions at the hospital to limit the spread of COVID-19.

On Wednesday, he saw her from a distance for the first time from his seventh-floor, south-facing window. Wegner became emotional up as he described “his sweetheart” standing outside. He moved his blinds up and down so she knew he was there.

Banh has been receiving assistance from the Red Cross and is staying in a hotel. She works for the non-profit housing agency Pacifica Housing, which has found the couple accommodation until they can find a more permanent home.

The couple has not been able to return to the home, so they haven’t been able to determine exactly what they lost in the fire.

They did not have tenants’ insurance. The couple is unable to retrieve their car keys, so they can’t access the vehicle Banh relies on to get to work.

“I don’t even own shoes right now,” Wegner said. Banh purchased some personal items with the $500 provided by Red Cross, and Wegner told her all he needs is some slippers and a few shorts and loose T-shirts.

A friend of the couple, Sonora Godfrey, has started an online fundraising campaign in support of two people she says are selfless volunteers in the community. The campaign has already raised nearly $3,000.

The couple has used personal savings to launch an environmental organization called LoveWhereYouLiveBC. One of its major campaigns was a cigarette butt cleanup during the 2019 B.C. Day long weekend. The event, called Jam One in the Can, resulted in 650,000 cigarette butts being cleaned off the streets by volunteers who got a nickel per butt collected.

Asked about his volunteer work, Wegner said he was taught to “find a need and fill it.”

He said he’s touched that his friends and the wider Victoria community have donated to help the couple rebuild.

“I’m overwhelmed with emotion,” he said. “It really touches me that there is this depth of caring in our community.”

kderosa@timescolonist.com