Stepping outside his 11th-floor unit, he smelled smoke and realized it was coming from his neighbour’s apartment.
McNicol, 51, knowing opening the door could trigger a dangerous backdraft, slowly pulled the door open.That’s when he saw his neighbour, Jimmy, engulfed in flames.
“I just looked and there was Jimmy burnt, right in front of me,” McNicol said. “He was just kind of standing there all stunned and burning.”
McNicol and another neighbour dragged the injured man out of the apartment and patted out his flaming clothes.
“He was on fire. His clothes were burning when I pulled him out,” said McNicol, who spent the night in hospital being treated for smoke inhalation.
The sole occupant of the apartment, a 50-year-old man, was taken to hospital with burns to “a large portion of his body,” said police release. He remains in hospital in serious condition.
The cause of the fire is still unknown.
McNicol said this is the second fire at this neighbour’s apartment in three years. The first fire happened when the neighbour fell asleep with a lit cigarette, McNicol said.
The Ontario Fire Marshal and the London fire inspector were at the scene investigating Saturday.
A police forensic identification van was parked outside the building.
The building, located at 241 Simcoe St., offers subsidized housing for adults with mental and physical disabilities.
On Oct. 21, Bob Anderson, who suffered from muscular dystrophy, died after a fire broke out in his fourth-floor apartment at 111 Belmont Dr., a highrise co-op building where some residents with disabilities live independently with the help of support workers on site.
Anderson, 52, was a smoker and had mobility issues.
The Ontario Fire Marshal is still investigating what started the blaze.