'We were running out of time': Tourist saves elderly man from burning P.E.I. inn

The rescue of a guest from the North Winds Inn and Suites fire in Brackley Beach, P.E.I., on Sunday involved a tourist taking a wrong turn and risking his life to save a stranger. 

Peter Slipp, of Fredericton, N.B., was on the Island for a soccer tournament with his family. Slipp wanted to take his children to Brackley Beach after the game. He typed "Brackley Beach" into his GPS navigator and clicked on the first location that popped up — The North Winds Inn and Suites. 

But as Slipp and his family pulled into the inn he noticed smoke coming from the building at the back of the property. 

"I got out and started looking for a fire extinguisher and I couldn't come across one real quickly, and the fire was starting to progress," said Slipp.

'Really progressed quickly'

For a few moments, Slipp hoped he could put out the fire before it grew too strong. At that point, he said, the fire had only spread to the step outside the building. 

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He jumped into action. He began going from room to room on the first floor. Finding no one, he started on the second floor. In the very last room, right above the flames, he found an elderly couple — unaware of the danger. 

"It really progressed quickly," said Slipp. "I knew we just had to get down that stairs and I said, I just kept yelling, 'We gotta go, we gotta go!'" 

We were running out of time to get out of there.— Peter Slipp

By then, flames blocked him from returning the same way he had come. 

He told CBC the woman was able to safely get down the stairs, but just 30 seconds later, as he and the man tried to make their way down, the staircase was engulfed in flames. 

"We were running out of time to get out of there," he said. 

"It was almost like a tornado coming up through the stairs. It got a lot worse really quickly and we were already started, so I just said, 'Go, go, go!'"

Slipp managed to get down the stairs with the man. By that time, he said, he was operating on "autopilot."

As he ran to save the guests, his wife and children watched from their car parked nearby.  

"My family, it was definitely a shock. They were quite upset at the time and it was very, very kind of shocking for them to see and go through," he said.

Slipp sustained second-degree burns and was treated by EMS on-site. It was only after he left the scene that his burns began to bubble up into large blisters on his face, arm and leg. Later, he drove himself to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown and was treated. 

He drove back to his home in Fredericton, N.B., that night and has been to the hospital every day since to have his bandages changed to ward off infection. 

Slipp told CBC he thinks he was in the right place at the right time. 

"Looking back on it ... we were just kind of meant to be there at that time," he said. "I was put there to be put in a position to help somebody."

He has since met the man he saved again in hospital. He said the man thanked him for saving his life.

The experience has given him a new appreciation for life, Slipp said.

"It definitely put things into a little bit different perspective."

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