Sidewinder The loss of more than innocence. p6
Families rally support for typhoon victims. p12
THE NEws
Sports The power not to just lift, but heal. p47
www.mapleridgenews.com Friday, november 15, 2013 · serving Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows · est. 1978 · 604-467-1122 · Delivery: 604-466-6397
Cedar mill fire sparks evacuations neighbours want hammond operation to deal with sawdust by Moni s ha M ar tin s staff reporter
Homes near a century-old Maple Ridge cedar mill were evacuated early Thursday after a fire sparked in sawdust. The Maple Ridge Fire Department rushed to Hammond Cedar around 5:30 a.m. after receiving a call about flames in the mill’s dust collection system. By the time crews arrived, the fire had spread into a silo. The fire department said the mill was concerned that the heat may cause the structure to explode. “My concern was I didn’t know how big the event would be,” added Maple Ridge deputy fire chief Howard Exner. “If they even blew a rivet off the side and it went through a window and hit somebody, that would be bad.” As a precaution, Ridge Meadows RCMP moved to evacuate homes adjacent to the Interfor-owned mill. see Mill, p11
Bert Pogany says sawdust from Hammond Cedar Mill coats his truck every morning.
Colleen Flanagan/The news
RCMP investigating downtown fires Two houses set on fire and a dumpster by M o n i s h a M a r t i n s staff reporter
Colleen Flanagan/The news
A family of six escaped unscathed after a 70-year-old house at 223rd Street and 119th Avenue was set ablaze.
A family of six escaped unscathed after fire ravaged a 70-year-old house early Wednesday in downtown Maple Ridge. The Evanows have rented the home, at the corner of 223rd Street and 119th Avenue, for the past eight years. It was one of two original
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farm homes in downtown Maple Ridge. Everyone was asleep when the fire started at 5:33 a.m. But one of the sons awoke to the sound of a smoke alarm and woke the rest of the family up. “Thank God,” said Christina Evanow, wrapped in a bed sheet outside her charred home. She lived in the house with her husband and four children, ages 14-20. She awoke to her son yelling, then heard crackling, “like a zipper.” She said the west side of the house, by the kitchen, was a wall of flames,
which were shooting through the roof. The family ran out of the east doorway, on to 223rd St., in their pyjamas and were unable to grab any other possessions. They aren’t sure what they will be able to salvage when they are allowed back inside. Neighbours gave them blankets and sheets. “I don’t know what we are going to do,” Evanow said. Her boys will need shoes. “Size 17.” A preliminary investigation by the
Index Opinion Letters As we Age Acts of Faith Cycling homes sports
6 7 17 18 20 37 47
fire department found that the fire started on the outside and was lit under “suspicious” circumstances. It was one of three fires started in the span of an hour in the district’s downtown core. The other fires were set in a dumpster on 225th Street, near Lougheed Highway, and a second home, on Garden Street. “The back of the house was well involved when we arrived,” assistant fire chief Howard Exner said as crews continued to spray hot spots with a fire hose at the first house two hours later. see Fires, p5
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