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Out of a Dream at Anvil WEDNESDAY APRIL 29, 2015
LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS
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H O M E TOW N
N E WS PA P E R
Train derails second time in a month By Theresa McManus
tmcmanus@newwestrecord.ca
Williams in getting a hose from a neighbour’s house and spraying water on the fire, but they stepped back as it was getting too much for a garden hose. “Once the van started catching on fire, the smoke was starting to get very thick,” he said, noting firefighters soon arrived. “It was probably about five minutes, but it felt like forever.” Deputy Fire Chief John Hatch said the fire occurred in a home on Howes Street just after 11 a.m. on Wednesday,
A train derailed on New Westminster’s waterfront for the second time in less than a month. On Sunday afternoon, an empty CN boxcar derailed as it was crossing Front Street under the eastern side of the parkade, across from Westminster Pier Park. “It was a single rail car that came off the track. It was called an upright derailment. There was no hazmat issues,” said Coun. Chuck Puchmayr. “It was a very slow speed that it was travelling.” Puchmayr, a member of the railway community advisory panel, has asked that derailments be discussed at the group’s next meeting as he’d like to know the causes of the derailments and how the railways can prevent these incidents from occurring. The panel includes representatives from four railways operating in New West, city staff, council and local residents. Sunday’s derailment comes just weeks after three grain cars ran off the tracks near East Columbia Street and Brunette Avenue at about 3:45 a.m. on April 5. Last July, five train cars carrying grain derailed along Quayside Drive because of a broken track. “Anytime a train car goes off the track it is concerning,” Puchmayr said. “It has to be concerning. If it’s a chemical car or a car with hazardous materials in it and there’s any kind of release, there are huge costs to responding to it. There’s also a concern about safety of the community. Having said that, we are very cognizant that four railways operate within New Westminster and have historically.” Fire Chief Tim Armstrong told the Record he learned about the derailment from a report on the news and contacted on duty firefighters about whether they’d been called to the scene. The fire department sent a crew down to the site and found there had been a derailment but their assistance wasn’t needed. “They felt there was no need to do so because it wasn’t obstructing any traffic, it
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A HELPING HAND
Kyle Williams and son Jayden dropped by the Queensborough home that caught on fire last week. Williams ensured all of the home’s occupants were safely out of the house and tried to extinguish the fire before it got out of hand. PHOTO JENNIFER GAUTHIER
Dad a neighbourhood hero Kyle Williams sees a house on fire, alerts residents and tries to put it out with a garden hose By Theresa McManus
tmcmanus@newwestrecord.ca
Kyle Williams’ regular workday consists of building gear boxes for the mining industry, but last week he tried his hand at firefighting. The Queensborough resident had dropped off his son at middle school after an orthodontist’s appointment, when he passed by a house and noticed
smoke and flames. “I never take that route. For some reason I went that way. I drove past this house and noticed some smoke,” said Williams, who pulled over and ran toward the house. “I started yelling and banging on the windows.” As Williams ran toward the house, he saw two upstairs residents who were unaware of what was happening below and
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alerted them to the fire. “They saw me park and run toward the house. I was yelling at them, ‘Get out of the house!’” he said. “It is a bit of a blur. It’s a lot to take in.” They told him there was a family sleeping downstairs and he continued to bang on windows to awaken them. “The fire was out of hand. I grabbed the garden hose. It didn’t work,” he said. “I booted in the garage carport door.” The family heard the commotion and got out of the house. Another man joined
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