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The cold snap in British Columbia has turned tragic, as police investigate a series of deaths thought to be weather-related.
The deaths are being seen across the province, which has been hit with unseasonably cold and snowy conditions over the past week.
On Sunday, a 63-year-old man was found dead in his van in Blue Mountain Park, in Coquitlam. The man lived in his van, RCMP Corporal Brenda Gresiuk said, and, around 2 p.m., police were called by a neighbour thinking the van was suspicious. But when officers arrived, they found the man dead inside.
No cause of death has been determined, but police are looking at whether the dropping temperatures played a role.
B.C. Ferry employee Chris Espey shovels snow from a ferry deck en route to Nanaimo, B.C., on Tuesday. Unseasonable snowfall and cool temperatures have gripped the Lower Mainland with more to come in the next day or two. (Canadian Press)
“There was a considerable cold snap that had set in … but we don't have any conclusive evidence on that,” Cpl. Gresiuk said. “This is really sad, so close to Christmas with the circumstances surrounding it all.”
A day earlier, police in Abbotsford were called to the home of an 88-year-old woman after a neighbour, who checked up on her daily, discovered her outside her home, in her nightgown and slippers, dead.
The man had checked up on the woman the previous night, and it appears that weather was a contributing factor in her death, said Abbotsford police Constable Casey Vinet.
“Certainly the possibility that a medical condition was worsened by the weather does exist,” he said.
Last week, a 68-year-old woman got off her bus in the Prince Rupert area one stop too early. The RCMP said the woman, who suffered from dementia, wandered off looking for her neighbourhood in the unfamiliar surroundings.
A search party was struck up soon after, and her body was discovered the next day, near her home in Port Edward, just south of Prince Rupert.
“Weather was definitely a factor,” RCMP Constable Krista Vrolyk said. “There was a massive search effort … and she was located the following day, shortly after noon.”
Last Friday, a homeless woman burned to death in Vancouver, after she appeared to have accidentally ignited herself while huddling around a candle for warmth.
Meanwhile, in downtown Vancouver, a crane operator was badly burned Tuesday in an accident in which his crane touched a power line. The crane was lifting a load of drywall at a construction site when the boom came in contact with the high-voltage power line, causing a short-lived power outage in parts of downtown. The man is reported to have suffered severe burns and was taken to Vancouver General Hospital.
With a report from The Canadian Press
