Frenchman dies after Soufriere hike

Olivier D’Ovout a 55-year-old French national died as a result of a heart attack after hiking to La Soufriere on Sunday.{{more}}

D’Ovout and his friend John Delucy, a boatyard manager from Martinique, came to St Vincent for a three-day vacation and were staying at a Kingstown Hotel. They left their hotel at 8 am on Sunday and headed to Richmond Bay in their rented Toyota Rav4, then began the three-hour hike to the crater of the volcano at 9:30am.

Delucy told SEARCHLIGHT that they arrived at the summit at 12:30pm but on the way down D’Ovout began to feel tired 15 minutes before reaching the Dry River.

“When we got to the Dry River he was very weak so I asked some men we met on the way to help us, so we took a small engine boat to Chateaubelair”, he further stated.

At the Chateaubelair wharf, D’Ovout was taken to the Chateaubelair Hospital in a minivan, but he had already died on the boat Delucy said. A hospital source confirmed that upon arrival he showed no sign of life.

D’Ovout was taken to the Kingstown Mortuary where an autopsy conducted on Tuesday determined that he died of a heart attack. His body was released to the Eveready Funeral Home to be flown to Martinique then to France for burial.

D’Ovout managed a banana plantation in Martinique; his wife and four children live in France.

This was D’Ovout’s first trip to St Vincent and the Grenadines, Delucy has made over nine visits by boat. “We have been friends for 20 years, he loved life, good food and good gin and tonic, I’ve lost a good friend,” Delucy said.