The Chilliwack 27
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Stubborn fire keeps crews busy
No one was injured after a minivan plowed into a donair shop at Eagle Landing in Chilliwack Wednesday. Police were investigating the incident, which occurred around 4:30 p.m., as The Progress went to press. The van smashed through the front entrance and came to rest completely inside the building. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
Firefighters from four fire halls were onscene tackling a feed mill fire on Simpson Road in Chilliwack on Tuesday. Neighbours said they heard an explosion and saw what appeared to be a “huge dust cloud” on Simpson near Unsworth Road at about 11 a.m. A hole in the east wall of the building was visible as a result of the fire. Fire crews were dispatched from several fire halls in Chilliwack. Upon arrival they reported smoke coming from the roof and vents of an industrial feed mill. They also found flames and smoke coming from vents and the attic. “The fire was very difficult to extinguish due to restricted access to the interior of the machinery spaces and the attic,” said assistant chief Jim MacDonald. The mill sustained heavy fire and smoke damage. There were no reports of injuries. Fire crews were back at the mill on Wednesday, dousing a few stubborn hot spots after smoke was seen coming from the building again. This is the third time in the past few years that fighters have been called to incidents at the mill.
Cougar sightings shut down popular hiking trail Eric Welsh The Progress
at her back and nowhere to go. She started praying. “I was a mess, and I certainly believe in divine intervention,” she said. “I was just waiting for my husband to get torn up.” That thought crossed Brian’s mind as well. “Oh yeah! This cat was hungry and he meant business,” he said. “He stared me down and when he took a couple steps towards me, I thought it was going to be a fight.” Then, the cat left. Moments later a jogger came up the trail. The Johnsons had called 9-1-1 and were advised to come
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One of Chilliwack’s most popular hiking spots was evacuated and shut down Wednesday morning after several people came across an aggressive cougar. Lori and Brian Johnson were heading up Teapot Hill around 11 a.m. with their chihuahua on a leash. They were nearing the top when Lori heard a rustling in the bushes next to her. Thinking it was a rabbit, she was stunned to see the cougar looking back at her, no more than two feet away.
Brian turned around, grabbed a couple sticks and handed the dog to Lori. While she slowly retreated up the hill, waving the sticks at the cougar, the animal stood its ground. “At first it was pretty scary, and I had to collect my thoughts and think, ‘How do I deal with this?’” he recalled. “My first thought was, ‘Do I throw these sticks at him?’ But I didn’t want to make him mad. He wasn’t scared of me at all.” Lori reached the top and realized she was trapped, with a fence
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down the hill in one group, gathering anyone else they came across. On the way down, they saw three more people with a dog running loose. They yelled at them to get their pooch on a leash. By the time they reached the fork in the trail, RCMP and conservation officers were on the way up, and they heard about another hiker, with a dog, who’d seen the cougar, panicked, ran away and been chased by the cat. Sgt. Steve Jacobi from the Conservation Officer Service (COS) said the cougar was spotted six times on the trail.
He and other officers searched the area, looking for something the cougar may have been protecting — recently downed prey for instance. They found nothing. “It’s not protecting anything and there’s not a lot of prey in area. Some small rabbits, but not much of a deer population,” Jacobi noted. “We get cougars moving through that area, but when they encounter people they usually run away.” His best explanation, this cougar is too young to know any better. Continued: COUGAR/ p10
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