Police believe a mix of cocaine, alcohol and marijuana is responsible for causing the overdoses of five people Sunday night at a home in the 800-block of MacIntosh Street in Coquitlam.
And it could have been much worse.
Emergency officials were called to the scene at around 11 p.m. when a roommate arrived at the home and found five people unconscious.
"If it hadn't been for the roommate coming home, we'd probably be waking up to the largest mass overdose death in the province in some time," said Coquitlam Fire Chief Wade Pierlot.
Coquitlam RCMP Const. Jamie Phillipson said investigators were unable to determine whether fentanyl, which is being blamed for a spike in drug deaths this year in Metro Vancouver, was a factor in the incident.
"There was a lot of speculation as to whether or not this was a fentanyl-based drug," he told The Tri-City News on Tuesday. "We can't confirm that. There were no substances suitable for lab analysis."
All of the victims were revived with the use of the opiate overdose antidote naloxone and were in hospital, where they are expected to make a full recovery, Phillipson added.
Pierlot said crews brought additional resuscitation devices and that all of the victims had extremely low oxygen saturation levels.
After the naloxone was administered, Pierlot said the victims were revived and able to walk outside to the ambulance with some assistance.
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