Friends identify ‘beautiful person’ killed in SE Calgary bedroom fire
By Ken Van De Walle & Jeremy Nolais Metro
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Facebook photo Billy McNabb, left, is seen with a friend in this undated Facebook photo. Friends have identified him as the victim of a southeast Calgary house fire that broke out early Sunday.
Friends have identified a 43-year-old man who died early Sunday after fire broke out in the basement bedroom of a southeast Calgary home.
Billy McNabb had been renovating and staying in the home, located at 14 Avenue and 38 Street SE, at the time of fire, according to friend Marsha Hunt.
She was staying in a home two doors down and awoken by a friend who alerted her to the fire. Speaking to reporters Sunday, Hunt recalled trying to rescue McNabb.
“I ran over and I ran through the doors, and it (the smoke) just went ‘poof’ right in my face — I couldn’t breathe,” she said. “I just began nailing the walls.
“I smashed the thing down and went down the stairs and as soon as I hit the door open, it just billowed out smoke, and I just started screaming.”
Hunt described McNabb as a “beautiful person, a very considerate and a very nice person.”
“Everybody is going to miss him,” Hunt said. “He was never rude. He was always friendly and happy.”
Fire crews responded to the blaze around 3:30 a.m. and found a man, believed to be McNabb, in “a smoke-filled room” in the home’s basement. He was rushed to hospital but later pronounced dead.
A second man, also a labourer who’d been working on the home, was taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation, but he was expected to make a full recovery.
It’s suspected the home didn’t have working smoke detectors.
Word of McNabb’s death shocked his friends.
“He was quite a happy-go-lucky guy,” recalled Donna Hansen, who’d known McNabb since shortly after he moved to Calgary from Ontario 18 years ago. The two had met in a bar and quickly became close.
“He was friendly; he had lots of friends,” Hansen added.
Fire crews were still investigating the cause of the blaze Sunday morning
By Ken Van De Walle & Jeremy Nolais Metro
Share this Article
Facebook photo Billy McNabb, left, is seen with a friend in this undated Facebook photo. Friends have identified him as the victim of a southeast Calgary house fire that broke out early Sunday.
Friends have identified a 43-year-old man who died early Sunday after fire broke out in the basement bedroom of a southeast Calgary home.
Billy McNabb had been renovating and staying in the home, located at 14 Avenue and 38 Street SE, at the time of fire, according to friend Marsha Hunt.
She was staying in a home two doors down and awoken by a friend who alerted her to the fire. Speaking to reporters Sunday, Hunt recalled trying to rescue McNabb.
“I ran over and I ran through the doors, and it (the smoke) just went ‘poof’ right in my face — I couldn’t breathe,” she said. “I just began nailing the walls.
“I smashed the thing down and went down the stairs and as soon as I hit the door open, it just billowed out smoke, and I just started screaming.”
Hunt described McNabb as a “beautiful person, a very considerate and a very nice person.”
“Everybody is going to miss him,” Hunt said. “He was never rude. He was always friendly and happy.”
Fire crews responded to the blaze around 3:30 a.m. and found a man, believed to be McNabb, in “a smoke-filled room” in the home’s basement. He was rushed to hospital but later pronounced dead.
A second man, also a labourer who’d been working on the home, was taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation, but he was expected to make a full recovery.
It’s suspected the home didn’t have working smoke detectors.
Word of McNabb’s death shocked his friends.
“He was quite a happy-go-lucky guy,” recalled Donna Hansen, who’d known McNabb since shortly after he moved to Calgary from Ontario 18 years ago. The two had met in a bar and quickly became close.
“He was friendly; he had lots of friends,” Hansen added.
Fire crews were still investigating the cause of the blaze Sunday morning
