NEWS: Councillor Kyle Thomson
SPORTS: Jamie’s bright rugby future
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Early morning blaze totals home By Jackie Lieuwen Houston Today
F o u r t e e n firefighters rushed on duty at 5:15 a.m. last Friday morning, where they spent the morning fighting a blazing house fire. Houston Fire Chief Jim Daigneault says a young male was sleeping in the house at the time the fire started, woke up to the smell of smoke, and ran to the neighbours to call 911. Daigneault says the house fire was well on it’s way when firefighters arrived. “There was heavy, heavy smoke coming out the front, and then flames coming out the back window,” said Daigneault. F o u r t e e n firefighters used two engines as they fought the flames, and Daigneault says they soaked the home for close to four hours, arriving back at the station at 10 a.m. “The home owners, Vince and Shannon
Clarke, were renting the house out to Kelby Trottier, who was out of town with her baby at the time of the fire,” said Daigneault. Daigneault says the home owners did have insurance on the house and property, located on 13th Street West in Houston, but he did not know yet whether the renters had insurance or not. Asked where the fire started, Daigneault said he’d rather not say. “It’s really speculating at this point, I think it was at the back somewhere,” he said, adding that the cause of the fire is still under investigation. Daigneault says they had no problems with water supply this time around. For more photos of the house remains see page 14.
Fourteen fire fighters fought a house fire early last Friday morning. No one was injured in the fire but there was nothing but charred remains left when the fire department pulled out four and a half hours later. Photos submitted by Houston Fire Department
Logging truck cab stolen from Industrial Park By Jackie Lieuwen Houston Today
A logging truck cab was stolen from the Houston Industrial Park last Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning, said RCMP Sgt. Rose. Sgt. Rose says the truck was disconnected from the trail-
er during the night and then stolen, and Houston RCMP got a call about the theft at 7 a.m. Wednesday. At 2:30 a.m. that same night, Feb. 13, a commercial truck was reported to the Prince George RCMP because it was driving dangerously and weaving in and out of traf-
fic, said Prince George media liaison officer Cpl. Craig Douglas. Cpl. Douglas says the truck was going at such a high rate of speed that they didn’t want to risk public safety by chasing it. “A truck can be replaced, a human life can’t be,” said Cpl. Douglas.
“Public safety is the foremost. Getting a stolen vehicle is not as important to us as protecting the public,” he said, adding that at the time the truck was spotted, they were unaware of the stolen truck from Houston. Cpl. Douglas says it was dark and the truck went past RCMP so
quickly that they were unable to get a license plate number, so they are not sure whether it was the stolen truck from Houston. The truck is a 2006 Grey Kenworth with “NEA Trucking” on the door and a grill guard on the front, said Sgt. Rose. He says the truck
was last seen between Quesnel and Williams Lake around 5 a.m. and the case is still under investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call Houston RCMP at 250-845-2204 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477. *** A pickup truck was
stopped by RCMP on Feb. 12 at 12:30 p.m. after being called in by an off-duty Burns Lake RCMP officer for erratic driving, speeding and passing on a double solid line near Palling B.C. between Topley and Burns Lake, Sgt. Rose said. See POLICE on Page 2