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Sentinel
Northern
www.northernsentinel.com
Volume 58 No. 35
Blaze tears through two Cablecar homes Cameron Orr An 8:26 a.m. fire call, Aug. 21, had 15 Kitimat firefighters on scene to a property on Chinook Street in Cablecar. Fire Chief Trent Bossence said that the first fire crew arrived at the blaze at 8:37 a.m., where two homes, joined at the garage, were on fire. Bossence said there was extensive damage to the two garages which were further to the rear of the property. Both houses were also involved in flames and he adds that the structure as a whole — including both homes — had extensive fire damage.
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
1.30 INCLUDES TAX
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“Everybody got out of the residence of both properties…on their own,” he said. “No injuries reported to me or the hall.” The investigation into the fire will focus on the garages, he said, which seems to be where the most damage is, and is also where eyewitnesses say they saw flames early on. The garages were holding vehicles and Bossence said there was a “significant fuel load” that he presumes would have been a contributing factor to the intensity of the fire. Firefighters were back at the hall around 2:00 p.m.
Restoration project set to bring clay to Clio Bay Cameron Orr Following from discussion around town, councillor Phil Germuth has moved to have the Department of Fisheries and Oceans invited to council, to speak about the rumours of Clio Bay possibly being closed off due to it being used as a clay dumping ground. “Clio Bay has always been of significant value to local boaters for both recreational and safety reasons,” said Germuth. “As important as Clio Bay is for its recreational use, perhaps it’s most valuable asset is its safety aspect. In times of high winds, Clio Bay has always been used as a safety refuge for boaters to duck in out of the weather and wait out before returning to port.” He said with Kitimat having lost two marinas, he wants to ensure Clio Bay isn’t another benefit lost to locals and tourists. The motion, which passed unanimously, included amendments to invite representatives from Chevron and Apache, which was brought forward by Mario Feldhoff, as he believed they were the proponents behind these concerns. The Sentinel was told by Chevron spokesperson Gillian Riddell in the days following the council meeting that the company will be undertaking a project called the Clio Bay Restoration Project. “For the past several months,
Chevron has been working with the support of the Haisla First Nation and the Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) on the Clio Bay Restoration Project,” she explained over e-mail. “[The] project work will be getting underway in January 2014.” The project, she said, involves taking marine clay from the Kitimat LNG site at Bish Cove to Clio Bay, “where it will be deposited at predetermined underwater locations in order to cover or ‘cap off’ accumulations of woody debris on the ocean bottom.” That debris, she explained, consists of thousands of partially decomposed logs and bark chips from past logging operations, which cover about 40 per cent of the bottom of the bay. “As a result, the ongoing decomposition of the logging debris has consumed much of the oxygen from the bay, and severely impacted its ecosystem, including fish and other marine life.” The marine clay taken from the Kitimat LNG site is, she said, identical to the clay already at the bottom of Clio Bay. The Restoration Project is expected to last about 16 months, and will involve the clay loaded onto barges at Bish Cove by a conveyor system. Continued on page 2
Fire fighters gather outside a home on Chinook Street on August 14, as a fire tears through two homes.
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