Kelowna Man Devastated by Wife’s Tragic Condo Fire Death, Canada

A Kelowna man is left devastated after the loss of his wife in a condo fire along Bernard Avenue on Friday. David Grant Mack says his wife, Jen Heitsmann, died of smoke inhalation when a fire broke out just after 5:30 p.m. at 736 Bernard Avenue. Mack says he and his wife were visiting a friend in a different area of their condo building when a fire alarm started to ring. He says Heitsmann, 42, tried to go back up to their room to rescue the animals they had. It went off, and we thought it was just another false alarm. There are no fire extinguishers here at all. She just ran upstairs and ran right into the fire. I went upstairs and tried to get her out. She went back in for the squirrels that we rescued. The smoke inhalation killed her. She just ran right in there. I couldn’t get her out. She couldn’t see anything, he said. Mack says he and his wife had lived in the building on Bernard Avenue for nine years. A poster has been put up on a tree beside the building that says ‘RIP Jen, Kilo, Gram. We love you.’ Kilo and Gram were the two squirrels Mack says they had been keeping in the condo. Seventeen residents of the building were placed in the care of Emergency Support Services and are unable to move back in at this time. Mack and Heitsmann’s belongings remain sprawled out on the lawn next to the condo. Mack says he will be moving all the belongings into a friend’s garage for now and will spend the next few nights at a hotel. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.