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Westshore Towing helps keep West Shore resident on the road

A car fire left Dany Mickel without a vehicle
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Owner of Westshore Towing, Dave LeQuesne (left) hands over the papers of a truck to Dany Mickel who lost his truck after it caught fire March 29. (Lindsey Horsting/News Gazette staff)

Things were turning around for Dany Mickel, he was driving home from a job interview that he landed, when his vehicle caught fire on the Trans-Canada Highway in March.

As he approached West Shore Parkway on the TCH, the training light came on in his car and he started to smell burning rubber.

He pulled his vehicle over to the side of the road and jumped out, upon which he saw smoke steaming from the hood and realized it was serious so he quickly took his dog out of the vehicle to get her to safety.

Mickel said a woman pulled over to help him and tried to put out the fire with her water bottle.

Mainroad South Island Contracting pulled up almost immediately to Mickel’s vehicle and used an extinguisher and put out the fire. The Langford fire department followed right behind.

“My recollection of the whole thing was I was really grateful a lot of people stopped to help, which is something you don’t much see today,” Mickel said.

Read More: Vehicle Fire on Trans Canada Highway in Langford

He and his dog were left unharmed, but his truck was destroyed.

Westshore Towing came to tow Mickel’s car back to Cobble Hill, and owner of Westshore Towing, Dave LeQuesne, felt compelled to help Mickel so he could continue on his upward trajectory.

“I spoke to the fire chief about it and came up with the idea that I had some cars in the yard I didn’t think were going to be collected,” LeQuesne said.

LeQuesne did a warehouse lien on some of the vehicles in his lot that remained unclaimed, the van came up, and he decided to give it to Michel to help him get back on the road again and be self-sufficient. LeQuesne said Westshore Towing has helped others where they could before, and participated in community food banks, but this is the first vehicle he has given away.

LeQuesne doesn’t know if it was Mickel’s story, or the dog that made him feel he needed to help. “I think everything just lined up that day,” he said.

Mickel said a big weight was lifted off his shoulders when LeQuesne offered to give him the truck. He has since decided to pay it forward. Mickel said he will use the car until he’s back on his feet and then will pass it along to someone else who needs it.

“I would like to thank them [the fire department] very much for being quick on the response and being as kind as Dave here as to motivating the situation for me to be with another vehicle,” Mickel said.


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lindsey.horsting@goldstream

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