As wildfire flames closed in, a 90-year-old Okanagan man with dementia was left behind

When wildfire flames were closing in, 90-year-old John Belleville was still at home.

The Desert Cove resident, who lives with dementia, hadn’t evacuated as the fire rapidly approached. His daughter, Shiloh, who lives in Vancouver, soon realized her father had been left behind and began desperately calling anyone she thought might be able to help.

Eventually, one of those calls reached Bob Tutush, a man she had never met.

Tutush drove to John’s home, were he spent time earning the senior’s trust before convincing him to leave. With flames visible nearby, the pair made it out safely and headed to the Kal Tire evacuation reception centre, hoping to find John somewhere to stay.

“He was a little reluctant. He told me he had to go to bed,” Tutush recalled. “I said, ‘John, no, there is a fire.’

“I ended up getting to the driveway, showing him the fire. We ended up getting his bag and into my truck.”

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Instead, they were told there were no accommodations available.

“When we got to the end of the lineup we were told there was no place for him to stay,” Tutush said.

An old family friend was able to provide John with a bed for the night, but it was only a temporary solution. With Shiloh not able to travel to the Okanagan, Tutush made another unexpected offer.

The next morning, he drove John nearly 400 km to Vancouver so he could reunite with his daughter.

The long drive included quiet moments, light conversation and even a failed attempt at sharing beef jerky, a moment Tutush now laughs about. But behind the humour was a promise he had made to a worried daughter: to get her father home safely.

For Shiloh, the stranger who answered the phone became the person who carried her family through one of its most frightening moments.

What began as a desperate search for help during a wildfire evacuation ended with an emotional family reunion, and the start of a friendship. John is now safely back home with his daughter, while the man who rescued him is no longer just a stranger, but someone the Belleville family says they will never forget.