Image: Mission Fire Rescue Service / Facebook / Mission crews have put out an encampment fire as community members stepped up to help a burn victim Monday morning (Sep. 22).

By Alyssa Conti

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Sep 22, 2025 | 3:55 PM

MISSION — A person has been rescued from the burning bushes after an encampment set ablaze near Mission Visitor Centre Monday morning (Sep. 22).

Mission Fire Rescue Service responded to reports of the fire on Lougheed Highway at around 11 a.m., but before that response, several community members stepped up to help.

Matt Mattice, a local plumber and business owner, got to the scene when he saw the billowing smoke. He said there was a police officer in an unmarked truck, as well as two off-duty firefighters who ran into the burning bushes.

“I guess [the fireman] had just seen some guy sitting in a fire, trying to get out of the fire, so he ran in there,” Mattice recalled. “[The person’s] legs are a bit cut up, and maybe some hair cinched off his legs.”

The fireman came out with a victim who had third-degree burns. Mattice and another person from the Centre then got water to help douse the person’s legs.

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“His feet were really badly burnt, his shoes pretty much were half melted off his feet.”

Mattice emphasized that the off-duty firefighter was a real hero, but when asked what made him decide to pull over and stay despite the harrowing experience, Mattice said he just “wanted to be there”.

“I understand they might be homeless, they might just be down on their luck,” he added. “It doesn’t matter what the story is; it’s just another human being that’s in trouble, right? So I always try and help out as much as I can.”

Crews were busy for nearly two hours to extinguish the blaze.

Mission Fire shared images from the incident at around 1:30 p.m.