‘He was a hero’: N.B. mother mourns son killed in devastating encampment fire

globalnews.ca:

As Heather McArthur’s son, Evan, was being treated in hospital for severe burns, his main concern was for his friends at the Saint John encampment where the devastating fire broke out.

“The first thing that Evan said to me was, ‘Did they get out safe?’” she said.

“He said, ‘I couldn’t put the fire out. I couldn’t find him.’ And I told him, ‘The fire is out now, and as far as I know, everybody’s safe, so it’s time to rest.’”

Evan was then airlifted to hospital in Halifax, where he later died.

The fire broke out Saturday at the encampment under the viaduct near Paradise Row in Saint John. Evan, who was 44, suffered severe burns and succumbed to his injuries the next day.

Based on the short conversation she had with her son, along with police and fire personnel, McArthur believes Evan was trying to save people that day.

“We told him over and over again that he was loved, and he was dying a hero,” McArthur said. “Those were the last words my son heard.”

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

McArthur remembers her son as having a “brilliant mind” with a photographic memory.

“He could remember a day that you had long forgotten, or an event,” she said, adding that he “gave good hugs.”

But he also struggled with addiction. When he drank alcohol, he became “two different people.”

“He was warm and friendly when he wasn’t under the influence of alcohol,” McArthur said.

Evan began drinking when he was young and curious, but it became a bigger problem in his adult years.

He also used harder drugs, though he managed to kick that habit when he was in his 30s. But he couldn’t give up on alcohol, and became estranged from his family for about 15 years.

McArthur said Evan liked his solitude: he knew his drinking was a