Burn survivor hoping to move out of Moccasin Flats

Dean Anderson, who now lives in Moccasin Flats with his girlfriend and his 19-year-old daughter, survived a tent fire four years ago.

He was addicted to crystal meth at the time and was living in a tent behind the Lombardy Trailer Park.

One day in November, when there was snow on the ground, his girlfriend left the tent to get coffee and cigarettes from the store and when she was gone their tent caught fire.

Anderson was trapped inside and one of his friends, who was also staying in the area, managed to pull him out, but he suffered burns over 85 per cent of his body, lost his hand, and spent the next six months in a coma.

He’s had 49 surgeries so far including various skin grafts, and when he woke up from his coma, he had to relearn everything from how to walk again and to how to feed himself.

“I used to be like a carpenter, mechanic and stuff but I can't do that anymore,” said Anderson.

“I woke up in the hospital and I didn’t know what was going on. All my tattoos were gone. My hand was gone…I shouldn’t have made it.”

Not only was he left with physical injuries, but he also suffers from PTSD. He said he has bad dreams every night and the smell of smoke triggers him.

When he finally left the hospital and came back to Prince George, the painkillers he was getting weren’t enough to deal with the pain and PTSD so he turned to opiates.

“Fentanyl works but it's against the law and it pretty much screws me over.”

He had been staying with his parents, but said he wanted them to have their own life back, so he moved down to Moccasin Flats.  

Almost four years later and he is still living in the encampment with his girlfriend and his daughter, who are both also addicted to fentanyl.

“I’m trying my best but it’s hard. Especially because of the condition I’m in right now.”

Anderson said he doesn’t think he would have suffered his tent fire accident if the Moccasin Flats encampment had existed at the time.

“If this was here when I caught on fire, I wouldn't have caught on fire. When I caught on fire, there was no such thing as this, like there was no tent city,” he said. 

Anderson said there used to be a few different places to camp, but he said they would have to pack up and run away from the bylaw officers.

“They were chasing us all over the place. We would take our camp down and go on to the next place.”

He said he’s seen a lot of lives saved at Moccasin Flats because they have the supplies to put out fires and Narcan readily available.

However, life in Moccasin Flats is still challenging and Anderson is hoping to leave soon as he’s worried about the winter.

“It sucks big time. This is not the life I wanted. I don't understand half of why... life is just weird,” he said.

“It's cruel and hard. I wish I would have just stayed in school and not gone to drugs, but it is what it is.”

He said the first couple of winters he was living in Moccasin Flats he was staying in a fifth wheel, but this will be the first year he’ll have to spend the winter in a tent.

“It’s like an army style wall tent. It’s got a fireplace and stuff but with my PTSD I just can’t sleep proper,” he said.  

“Because it’s canvas and more of a house looking thing it’s not so bad but if I’m in a dome tent I start freaking out. Like the smell and the sound of it. That will probably never go away.”

Another big challenge he faces living in the encampment is dealing with his physical health conditions.

“While I was in Vancouver General Hospital I got MRSA really bad. So, I get sores all over the place they get all over my legs and stuff,” he explained.

He said he still goes back and forth to his parents’ place to shower when his MRSA flares up and causes blistering on his legs, which he also has to treat with meds and IV therapy.

Anderson said he hopes to get into a place with his girlfriend and daughter soon especially before the winter comes and is on the list for a place with B.C. Housing.

He said their long-term goal is to get clean and move back to his girlfriend's reserve near Middle River, but if not he hopes B.C. Housing will come through.

“Probably start as soon as we get a place, I'm going to start... I'll be on opiates for the rest of my life because of the physical pain right? But my girlfriend she doesn't need to do it. She wants to quit, but having me around is not easy,” he said.

Anderson said if he could get his own place, it would help a lot with his MRSA and he’d finally be able to sleep properly.

“But yeah, I don't think that I'm going to last another winter down here.”

This is the second instalment in a series of features the Prince George Citizen will be doing to chronicle the stories of unhoused individuals within the city. If you know someone who would like to share their story please contact hpetersen@pgcitizen.ca.