A man died at the Cliff Avenue homeless camp Thursday night from a suspected fentanyl overdose.
Maple Ridge Fire Department, paramedics and police were dispatched to the camp behind the Salvation Army’s Caring Place, just after 11 p.m.
“One of them, they were able to revive with some Narcan (naloxone) and unfortunately, the 42-year-old man didn’t respond and was deceased,” said Ridge Meadows RCMP civilian media spokesman Dan Herbanson.
He said that B.C. Ambulance paramedics administered Narcan to the survivor, but wasn’t sure if that was tried on the deceased man.
Residents of the camp say he wasn’t staying there and police say he was from Surrey.
Deputy fire chief Howard Exner said Narcan was administered before the fire department arrived.
“If everything’s administered properly, there is a chance of survival.”
Exner said the man who was revived was sitting on a lawn. First responders worked a long time trying to revive the other man, who was lying in the road at the west end of the camp.
The coroner attended and will do either an autopsy or toxicology report.
“It’s becoming far too prevalent,” said Herbranson.
“This stuff has claimed a number of lives in the Lower Mainland.”
Police and first responders are warned to not even touch fentanyl because it can be absorbed through the skin.
In the last month, about a dozen people have died in the Metro Vancouver area from fentanyl overdoses.
