Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 15 Aug, 2024 04:16 PM
Officials say they'll never know the cause of a massive fire earlier this summer that started a warehouse and then burned a wooden trestle in Metro Vancouver.
The fire sent black smoke billowing across the region, prompting an air quality advisory and the temporary closure of a bridge between Vancouver and Richmond.
Richmond Fire Rescue Assistant Deputy Chief Grant Wyenberg says the investigation has been closed, and an engineer's report found the site was unsafe.
He says the fire department cannot accurately determine the cause of the fire without being able to access what remains of the structures.
Mounties on Vancouver Island say they're looking for the public's help to find a suspect in a theft investigation after a child's collection of handmade bracelets was stolen from a front porch in Langford. Westshore R-C-M-P say the gemstone bracelets were made for sale by an 11-year-old girl, and were stolen on July 17th off a porch where she had them displayed.
Police in Surrey say two fires in the city in the last few days have left two people dead in Whalley and Newton. Surrey RCMP say a fire at a home on 112A Avenue on July 20th claimed the life of an 85-year-old woman, but the blaze is not being treated as suspicious.
The numbers seem ever increasing for British Columbia wildfire statistics, including more than 400 fires, tens of thousands of lightning strikes and at least six homes lost. The homes were in the Venables Valley, and Colton Davies with the Thompson-Nicola Regional District says they were among 20 buildings destroyed by the Shetland Creek wildfire.
The Bank of Canada cut its key interest rate for a second consecutive time on Wednesday, but warned the path back to two per cent inflation may be uneven and would ultimately determine the pace of future rate cuts. The central bank says its decision to lower its policy rate by a quarter percentage point was motivated by easing price pressures and weakening economic conditions.
The British Columbia gold rush town of Barkerville is drenched, both from overnight rains and sprinklers dousing its timber buildings, some more than 150 years old. It's part of an effort to save the historic park that is one of the Cariboo region's premier tourist attractions from the flames of the Antler Creek wildfire that is burning out of control about three kilometres away, said Stewart Cawood, Barkerville's public programming and media manager.
One person is in custody after three stabbings in Vancouver, while the deaths of two women in the city are also being investigated. Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim is calling the events "deeply unsettling."
