From his hospital bed, Dylan Bennett points to his four stab wounds.
“Mostly near the heart,” he said.
Dylan, 20, doesn’t remember much about Monday morning. He just remembers “chilling” on a deck on the 800 block of 18 Street West, before heading inside to get some sleep.
But now he knows that a relative’s boyfriend, who lives just across the street, had to rescue him from the burning home.
Somebody, he acknowledged, left him in that house to burn.
The Prince Albert Fire Department is treating the fire as “suspicious.” When they rushed to the scene at 4:51 a.m. Monday, they found a house at least partially engulfed in flames. Firefighters forced their way in and put out the fire. They didn’t find anyone else inside.
The department confirmed that Dylan’s neighbour saved him from the blaze, just prior to their arrival. Paramedics then transported him to hospital in “good condition,” said Parkland Ambulance spokesman Lyle Karasiuk.
As Karasiuk reviewed a report detailing Dylan’s injuries, he remarked that they weren’t consistent with what paramedics usually see after a fire.
“I think there’s more to this story,” he told the Daily Herald.
Indeed there was. Police later reported that the incident was also a stabbing. They said they arrested a 25-year-old man nearby. The man, who police say was known to the victim, has not yet been charged with an offence. Authorities say that they continue to investigate both the stabbing and the cause of the fire.
Dylan’s grandfather, Vietnam veteran Grant Bennett, broke into tears as he looked upon his injured grandson lying in that hospital bed.
“It could happen to anybody, that’s the problem,” he said, sobbing. “Am I upset? Yes I am.”
He has one message for the man who attacked Dylan: “I’ll get you.”
Dylan’s cousin, Ashtin Bear, said it’s “hurtful and scary” to see someone he grew up with come so close to death.
He wants to recognize the man who saved Dylan’s life.
“Thank you so much, you saved my cousin,” Bear said. “He’s here now, thanks to you.”
Dylan’s thoughts are much the same.
“Thanks for saving my life.”
