CTV News has learned that two unrelated deaths which took place in Vancouver Saturday are tragically linked to the same family.
Family members are reeling after Nanjar Dhesi, a 75-year-old wife, mother and grandmother, was killed in a tragic bus accident Saturday – and then a fire broke out in the basement suite of their home hours later, leading crews to the body of a man who was reportedly living there.
Emergency crews were called to the home in the 900-block of East 63rd Avenue at around 4:45 p.m., according to Vancouver Fire & Rescue Service Capt. Gabe Roder.
After crews knocked back the blaze and entered the residence, they found the body of a man, possibly a renter, who had been living in the basement suite.
“This time is really bad for us,” said Rajwant Toor, Dhesi’s niece and a resident of the home. “One thing is our aunt passed away, and the other thing is our house burned down, and now they tell us [there’s] a body found downstairs.”
More than 20 people lived in the home, Toor said, and are now staying with family while trying to piece their lives back together.
“We’re homeless,” she said. “We have to manage right, because we cannot go anywhere else.”
In yet another sad twist, the fire took place only several blocks away from the scene of a bizarre bus incident that led to Dhesi’s death earlier that day.
A bus was loading passengers on Ross Street at 63rd Avenue at around 9 a.m. morning when the vehicle suddenly started to roll down the hill, according to Sgt. Randy Fincham.
Dhesi was boarding the bus to go on an annual group trip to Harrison Hot Springs when the vehicle started to roll backward.
She reportedly fell out of the bus on to the sidewalk, sustaining what officials initially believed to be minor injuries, while the bus careened an estimated 50 feet down Ross Street.
Emergency crews attended to Dhesi, who was an active volunteer for the Ross Street Sikh Temple, but she died in ambulance en route to a hospital, Fincham said.
Family members are now remembering her as a selfless community woman as they continue to struggle with her loss.
“She’s a very good lady,” Toor said. “Everybody knows her, she’s very famous. She helps everybody, she talks with the people.”
The accident could have been much worse, bystanders said.
Jojhinder Johal was on the bus with about 45 others when the vehicle started to roll. Shouts of “Mr. Johal! Put on the brake!” prompted him to spring into action, jumping into the driver’s seat and slamming his foot down on the brake pedal.
“Right to the end I try to move the steering [wheel], to turn, but couldn’t,” he said. The wheel was jammed up because the engine wasn’t on, he said.
Thanks to Johal hitting the brakes, the bus came to a stop just inches away from an intersection.
“It [stopped]. Everybody’s happy, ‘You’re the hero, you’re the hero.’ I said, ‘God [is] the hero. Not me,’” he said.
The cause of the fire and the man’s death, as well as the fatal bus incident that killed Dhesi, are all under investigation.
A representative for the bus company, Premier Pacific Coach Lines, said they’re waiting to learn more from the police investigation into the incident before commenting.
With a report from CTV British Columbia’s Norma Reid
