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WEDNESDAY, February 12, 2014
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House fire leaves local man displaced
An early morning photo of firefighters battling the the fire on Kring Road which Volunteer firefighters continued to douse the fire with water in the -30 C weather, as destroyed one man’s home. some parts of the fire still burned, others turned to ice. Photo courtesy of the Fort St. James Fire Department
Ruth Lloyd Caledonia Courier One local resident is displaced after a house fire burned his residence to the ground on Feb. 6. The Fort St. James Volunteer Fire Department was called by residents of Nak’azdli to a report of a fire across the lake on Kring Road around 5 a.m.. The homeowner, Chris Elliot, was at work when the fire took place, and fire-fighters arrived to a fully involved structure fire.
Ruth Lloyd/Caledonia Courier
There were 13 firefighters on the scene for about four hours, with two fire engines, one rescue truck and one water tender. At 10 a.m., two firefighters were still cooling down some hot spots and a water tender was still bringing water. In the freezing temperatures, firefighters were dealing with ice while watering down the still-smoking remains of the house. Fire Chief Mike Navratil said the water tender dumped a further three loads on the fire and worked until 3:30 p.m., dumping an estimated
10,000 gallons on the fire. While there were still some hot spots, the fire was deemed safe to leave and to be reassessed in the morning. Elliot is being put up through the provincial Emergency Social Services program, providing him with three days of food, shelter and clothing. Elliot did not have insurance. The cause of the fire is undetermined but still under investigation, there was no gas to the house and no space heaters, which Navratil said are the most common cause of house fires at these tem-
peratures. The house fire was ending a busy week of calls for the fire department. On Feb. 4, firefighters were called out at 5:30 a.m. to a house in the Sowchea area. Residents had an alarm going off in their home and could not find the source of the problem and called firefighters to ensure there was no carbon monoxide or other dangers in the house. Jan. 31 firefighters were called to a chimney fire, which firefighters were able to contain.
Blackwater project deferred At council on January 20, Bob Gallagher, president and CEO of New Gold, announced plans to defer the construction of the Blackwater mine so that now its operational date will be in 2019 instead of 2017. The price of gold has dropped and New Gold is focusing on their other projects which will cost less. “Certainly we all wish that things would go as quick as possible but on the other hand
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it gives us a great opportunity as a community to get ready,” said Vanderhoof mayor Gerry Thiessen. “I think that we as a community want to know as much as we can about New Gold’s plans to make sure that we are as prepared as we can be. We need to make sure that we have people educated, everything from welders, to camp cooks or truck drivers.” “Building in a low price environment” is something Gallagher mentioned to council
and that means keeping costs low for now since this is “not an environment to be raising money in, but if we get a strong turn around in gold price that date could accelerate.” The Blackwater project, located south of Vanderhoof, is still very much on New Gold’s agenda though. The mine is expected to cost almost $2 billion but is nearly twice as large as their other mine project, Rainy River, so is estimated to hold something like 8 million
ounces of gold. The project will also create about 500 permanent jobs in the region. But not until it’s finished, five years from now. For this summer, the mine will keep five or six rigs in operation and continue with their exploration phase. The mine is completing all of its permits including environmental assessments in the interim.
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