'Free at last': Evan McArthur dies a hero in Saint John encampment fire, says mother

Patrick 'Evan' McArthur died Sunday following a tragic homeless encampment fire in Saint John on Saturday night. (Evan McArthur/Facebook)

Peter 'Evan' McArthur died a hero and is "free at last," according to his mother.

The 44-year-old man suffered burns to 92 per cent of his body in a fire Saturday night at a Saint John homeless encampment near the Main Street Viaduct over Route 1. He was pronounced dead at a Halifax hospital on Sunday.

Heather McArthur says she visited her son at the local hospital before he was transported by helicopter. She says she'll never forget the look of him, or what he told her.

"What he said to me was, 'Did they get out?'

"I had no clue what he was talking about. He said, 'I know the girls did, but I couldn't find him.'"

Evan, who was homeless and lived in a makeshift hut in Millidgeville, had been visiting friends at that encampment and had fallen asleep when the fire broke out, said McArthur.

She said he told her, "I tried to put it out after I got the girl out, but I couldn't find him and I couldn't put the fire out. And then the next thing, I was at the tent door and somebody was pulling me out."

Evan McArthur was visiting friends who lived at the encampment, his mother says. (Lars Schwarz/CBC)

By then Evan started coughing and choking and had to be intubated for transport, said McArthur. So she told her son, "You put out all the fires you need to. It's time to rest.

"I want you to know only one thing, no matter what was or what is, I love you, your brother loves you, your nieces love you, and your dad loves you. That's all you have to remember.

"And then they put him to sleep and he didn't wake up."

The Saint John Fire Department and Saint John Police Force continue to investigate the cause of the fire.

According to McArthur, statements police took from the "girls gelled with what Evan was saying."

Because Evan had fallen asleep before the fire started, however, he didn't realize the man he went back to look for in the two-room tent had left earlier in the evening, she said.

McArthur, who would have turned 45 on Feb. 25, had been visiting his family more in the past year and they celebrated their first Christmas together in about 20 years. (Submitted by Heather McArthur)

McArthur visited the charred encampment Monday and found one of her son's size 13 sneakers, burned among the rubble.

"In essence, Evan was a hero because those girls would not be alive if he hadn't done what he did. So in my estimation, he felt he had a purpose and I think his purpose was served that night."

Evan believed in "a higher power" from a young age, said McArthur. But he also struggled with demons — drugs and alcohol, which made him violent.

"The skin-graft doctor in Halifax told me that they could keep him, but it would take 10 to 12 surgeries with no guarantee and no quality of life.

"Or we could just let him be. And Evan always wanted to be free. He carried enough demons. So we let him be free. And he died the next morning."

"Free at last, son," his obituary reads.

Crack cocaine at 15 changed son

Evan's problems started when he was introduced to crack cocaine at age 15, said McArthur. "It changed who he was mentally and physically."

Her curious, "brilliant" little boy, who used to put salamanders in his pockets, who was involved in the church mentoring group and had "every badge going," who had a passion for reading and a talent for music, who loved joking around and being the centre of attention, slowly disappeared.

Evan started university, hoping to pursue psychology, but dropped out after about two and a half years, due to addiction.

"From there on it was just one in-depth disaster after another. Bad choices, bad behaviour, bad attitudes," said McArthur, who was estranged from Evan for about 15 years because she found it too painful to watch his steady decline, and she knew there was nothing she could do to help him until he was ready to be helped.

Self-described 'trapoholic'

Although McArthur believes Evan eventually beat his battle with drugs, he continued to fight the war with alcohol.

"For some reason, he believed the alcohol was keeping him alive. And he just was so scared of what would happen to his body and his mind if he didn't have the alcohol."

He described himself as a "trapoholic," she said. He told her, "I'm trapped. I need a drink or I get violently ill. If I drink, I get violent. And I just keep going around and around and around, with no way of getting off."

Evan had odd jobs over the years, but struggled to maintain full-time work. He'd been homeless for about four years, living in the woods.

Evan was homeless for about four years and lived in this camp in the woods in Millidgeville, his mother said. (Heather McArthur)

McArthur didn't know about that until recently, as they worked to rebuild their relationship. As a mother, she worried. "It must be horrific being homeless, it truly must be," she said.

"I mean, how do you provide yourself with food and shelter and cleanliness and warmth? … And he said on really cold nights, he would find friends that would take him in."

More recently, Evan would come to the family home if he wasn't drinking. "This was his shelter in the storm."

Was rebuilding relationships

This past year had been better than ever, she said, noting they celebrated Christmas together for the first time in about 20 years.

Two days before the fatal fire, Evan got to meet his nieces, who live in Alberta, for the first time over a video call, and spoke to his brother Adam for the first time in about 15 years, said McArthur.

"He had tears running down his cheeks," she said. "It was just phenomenal that he had that opportunity, and that's the first thing his brother said when I told him his brother had died, he said, 'Oh, thank goodness we got that chat in, mom.'"

When it got too cold out, Evan would go to a friend's or to his family home to sleep, his mother said. (Heather McArthur)

Evan also visited on the day he died, said McArthur. He had breakfast, took a shower, stayed warm. "And then he decided he was going to go visit three of his friends in their tent.

"Apparently it's quite normal for his friends, who all live in tents, to visit each other and just sort of group together to get warm. That's the purpose of it I think."

'These people are valuable'

McArthur says she was very much aware of the homeless situation in Saint John and has been doing what she can to help, gathering up warm clothing and blankets, and anonymously dropping off boxes of non-perishable foods.

"But I'm not making a difference. This has gone way beyond — when a man can die from living in a tent in the conditions that those tents were in. I just, I had no idea it was that crowded.

"And they tell me that's a small camp compared to some of the ones we have uptown."

Heather McArthur says Evan described his home as a 'little piece of heaven.' (Heather McArthur)

Evan's solitary hut was different, said McArthur, who went to visit it on Monday and was struck by how tidy it was, with his bed made and dishes hung.

"He took his ingenuity, he took what skills he had, and he put them into what he called his home — his little piece of heaven," she said.

"That's why Evan's story needs to be heard, because these are valuable people. Some of them, yes, have addictions and it causes issues, but they're all valuable in their own way."

McArthur doesn't know what the answers are, but she says her son's death and the fire should never have happened. "It's not like we didn't know it was … possible because we did. Every one of us has heard the horror stories."

She intends to become an advocate and to push for meaningful changes instead of what she described as a "hit-and-miss approach.

McArthur visited her son's place in Millidgeville on Monday and was struck by how tidy and innovative he was in such a small space. (Heather McArthur)

"I don't know how you stop all of this. I don't even know if you can," given all the socio-economic issues involved. "But we've got to start somewhere — as a community, as a group, as a government body —  let's all try to get on one of the same pages so we can do something.

"We've got to have a sense of direction on this and there isn't — not from the government, not from the powers that be, and not from the people that so desperately want to help.

"So how do we all work together if we don't have a common objective?"

No funeral service for Evan is planned at this time. Remembrances to Outflow Ministries of Saint John would be appreciated, his family says.