Tuesday April 24, 2012 (Vol. 37 No. 33 33) 3)
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Faces of Vaisakhi: More than 200,000 people celebrated in the streets of West Newton Saturday, at the largest Vaisakhi Parade outside of India. For more photos and video, visit www.peacearchnews.com see page 2
S U R R E Y
w w w. p e a c e a r c h n e w s . c o m
Construction-site landslide could have ended in tragedy
Neighbours evacuated as wall buckles Tracy Holmes Staff Reporter
Residents of a Buena Vista Avenue home had to be evacuated Thursday evening, after an excavation site immediately south of their property collapsed, threatening the building’s stability. Paul Stanton, White Rock’s director of
planning and development services, said it is sheer luck no one was injured in the retention-wall collapse, which occurred at 14919 Beachview Ave. “The gentlemen that had been in the site and putting plastic up to minimize erosion if it rained were lucky it didn’t happen when they were down in the excavation hole,”
Stanton said Monday. “It could’ve been very serious. The property owner above, part of his land slid down into the excavation site.” Stanton said the trouble was caused by excavation that was done close to an existing retaining wall which hadn’t been stabilized. Soils behind the wall were organic, the wall
collapsed, and the land behind it, most of which was fill, slid down, he said. In addition to one neighbour being asked to find alternate accommodations for the weekend, the city had to tell the residents of a property to the west to stay off of their home’s deck. see page 4
Ryan Ashe crosses road
Homeless man on the move again Tracy Holmes Staff Reporter
Attempting to comply with a request from the City of White Rock, Ryan Ashe last week moved his belongings away from a Johnston Road bus stop to a corner of private property across the street. “I’ll move my stuff over there and I’m not going to worry much about what they say after that,” the wellknown homeless man said, shortly before packing up Friday morning the area he has called home for the past few months. But Mayor Wayne Baldwin Ryan Ashe said it’s likely homeless more will have to be done. “We’re not going to make a deal out of it, but I’m thinking that it probably won’t be (enough),” Baldwin said that afternoon. Ashe, a familiar face in White Rock for more than a decade, was approached to move last week, after city officials fielded dozens of complaints about his settlement just north of Thrift Avenue. Ashe had located there after site preparation for a development at the intersection’s northeast corner forced him out of landscape shrubbery, and his belongings soon spread to take over the bus shelter. see page 3
Tracy Holmes photo
A 11-year-old boy is rushed to hospital by air ambulance Thursday morning after suffering hot-water burns to his chest and right arm.
Boiling water spills on 11-year-old boy
Child airlifted after kitchen collision A 11-year-old South Surrey boy was airlifted to BC Children’s Hospital Thursday after suffering hot-water burns to 25 per cent of his body. Emergency crews were called to a home in the 2300-block of 138A Street just before 9 a.m. Police say the second-degree burns – to his chest and right arm – occurred when the boy’s mother, who had been boiling eggs, turned to
empty out the water, not knowing her son was behind her. She immediately put the child in a shower to cool the wounds, and called 911. The boy was transported by ambulance to nearby Chantrell Creek Elementary, where a helicopter lifted off with the victim, his mother and paramedics at 9:45 a.m. Emergency crews at the scene said the boy’s
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injuries were not life-threatening. He was treated and released from hospital later that day. The incident, police say, is a good reminder to parents to be extra cautious when cooking around children; and for children to be mindful of keeping a safe distance in the kitchen anytime cooking is underway. – Tracy Holmes
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