Drunk man who passed out while smoking in field seriously burnt by grass fire before taking bike and being hit by train

A 51-year-old man from Kamloops, British Columbia, is in hospital with serious burns and a deep gash on his head after a bizarre sequence of events on Wednesday. Police were called to the Gateway Estates Mobile Home Park at about 3 p.m. after someone saw a grass fire nearby, RCMP Staff Sgt. Grant Learned said.



As firefighters put out the flames, a witness reported seeing a man flee the area on a bike soon after the fire started. While officers were on their way, Canadian Pacific Railway operations staff contacted police about a freight train crew reporting they had hit a pedestrian nearby.

When police arrived, they found an intoxicated man with serious burns to his body and a cut to his head where he'd been hit by the train. Police investigating pieced together a story that the man was lying in the field by the mobile home park and he fell asleep while smoking. When he woke up, his clothes and the surrounding grass were on fire.



He ran from there to his home at the mobile home park, grabbed a bike and took off. He was continuing along the railway tracks when he was hit by the train. He was taken and admitted to Royal Inland Hospital for treatment. Staff Sgt. Learned said the investigation is now branching into whether the bike was stolen. Investigators believe the fire was accidentally caused by smoking materials.