THURSDAY, JULY 2, 2020 TRICITYNEWS.COM
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Coquitlam
Port Coquitlam
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Property crime has fallen during COVID-19 pandemic
City launches equity & diversity roundtable
Port Moody Public Library set to reopen
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Call before you travel + Meet online before ‘taking the plunge’ + Teen opioid deaths worry Coquitlam mom
WILDFIRE RISK
SHRINERS’ GIZEH TEMPLE DRUM AND BUGLE BAND
‘We are a ticking time bomb’ Belcarra mayor sounds alarm on wildfire threat GARY MCKENNA gmckenna@tricitynews.com
Kestutis Glambimskas takes the necessary safety precautions while playing the glockenspiel during a performance by the Shriners’ Gizeh Temple Drum and Bugle band at the Lakeview Care Centre in Coquitlam on Friday. For more photos, see page 3. MARIO BARTEL/THE TRI-CITY NEWS
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With the warm summer months approaching, the mayor of Belcarra is warning that the community may not have the water capacity to fight a significant fire. According to Neil Belenkie, the mayor and a former volunteer firefighter, the village has twice run out of water while battling house fires over the last few years. Without an expanded reservoir, he fears that a major blaze could easily spread into the trees surrounding the village and turn into a wildfire. “If a fire is going to get out of control, it is absolutely more likely to happen in Belcarra,” Belenkie told The Tri-City News, noting most of the houses are in close proximity to the forest. Currently, he said the vil-
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lage has a reservoir with enough capacity to allow firefighters to douse a blaze for approximately one hour — not even enough time to fight a standard house fire. Hooking up to the region’s water system will cost tens of millions of dollars, he added, and could only happen if higher levels of government stepped in to help with the cost. Instead, Belcarra council is hoping it will receive a $3.8 million infrastructure grant from the provincial government, which will allow for the construction of an expanded reservoir. “We are a ticking time bomb for the entire region,” he said. “It needs to get done.” Belenkie has seen first hand what happens when a major fire breaks out in the village. Before becoming mayor, he was a firefighter with the Sasamat Volunteer Fire Department, and remembers the first time the village ran out of water while crews battled a blaze in 2017. see
BELENKIE, page 5
.ca