Friday, August 18, 2023 edition -- From the fire frontlines

Friday, August 18, 2023 | 🌧 High 22C

Good morning!

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WORTH KNOWING

🚨 FVRD evacuation alerts for Canyon Alpine and Boston Bar area

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope

⚠️ Here’s the current smoke forecast / Check the BC Wildfire Dashboard here /

🚘 Driving today? Highway 1 will remain closed at least until 9:30am / Check the current traffic situation via Google, and find DriveBC’s latest updates.

NEWS

From the fire frontlines

Jerry Michell, a longtime BCWS firefigher from the Agassiz area, is one of thousands of men and women fighting wildfires across BC. Some are in helicopters, some in planes, and some in heavy equipment.

And a huge number are doing hard, essential work with shovels and axes in hard terrain.

Michell is currently working out of Lillooet fighting the Casper Creek fire about 20km to the community’s west. The blaze has already forced the evacuation of several small communities.

• Today, we’re sharing images shot Tuesday by Jerry while fighting one of the province’s most aggressive blazes. We also have insight from a Vic Upshaw, a Chilliwack-based fire expert and longtime former firefighter, on the toll such fire seasons take on crews.

Need to know

🚨 Residents in the Boston Bar and Canyon Alpine area were put on evacuation alert late last night due to the fast-moving Kookipi Creek fire

🚨 Lytton-area and Kanaka Bar residents are also on evacuation alert [TNRD]

⛔ Highway 1 through the Fraser Canyon was closed last night because of the fire, check DriveBC for the very latest [DriveBC]

🔥 If you saw a large plume north of the valley last night, that was the Kookipi Creek fire between Boston Bar and Lytton; video shows the fire tearing through a lookout cabin at incredible speed [Lyttonet]

💰️ As Langley Township and Langley City borrow money to fund projects, business owners in both municipalities grow nervous [Langley Advance Times]

🏆️ The Stanley Cup will visit Aldergrove next week [Aldergrove Star]

🍅 Fraser Valley farmers are hustling to harvest crops that ripened faster than usual in the extreme heat [CTV]

🛬 Two people survived after their small plane crashed in Harrison Lake [Agassiz-Harrison Observer]

🐟️ The Pacific Salmon Commission is expecting an abundant pink salmon run up the Fraser River this year [Vancouver Sun]

🚒 The Chilliwack Fire Department was dispatched for a potential natural gas leak; it was actually the smell of dirty diapers [Fraser Valley Today]

👉️ Mission Institution went into lockdown on Thursday [Mission Record]

🖼️ Local artists showed off their work in an open air art show last weekend [Langley Advance Times]

➡️ A man has been charged in the death of a Kwikwetlem councillor who was found dead in Mission [Mission Record]

💵 Skwah First Nation will receive $30,000 to plan for extreme heat events from the province [Chilliwack Progress]

👻 A Spirit Halloween will return to haunt Abbotsford’s Highstreet Shopping Centre [Abbotsford News]

👉️ An organization is offering financial awards for Chilliwack women who provide for their families while attending post-secondary school [Chilliwack Progress]

🚵‍♀️ A cyclist was hit by a car on Lougheed Highway in Mission [Mission Record]

🚗 A car smashed into the Mission Community Health Centre [Mission City Record]

The Agenda

Chilliwack to map storm drains

About 400 km of storm sewers run underneath Chilliwack’s streets and buildings. And no one knows quite how old everything is.

Chilliwack is planning to spend up to $200,000 for a map of its storm infrastructure, from manholes to local creeks. While the city currently inspects the sewers whenever they’re needed, or whenever roadwork above a section provided an opportunity to check up on them, it doesn’t have a complete model. About 20 percent of the infrastructure is over 70 years old, and another 20 percent is “of unknown age.”

The city is in the process of hiring a company to create a model that will provide help the city make flood mitigation decisions in the future. The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2024.

Chilliwack isn't the only city trying to learn more about its sewers. Earlier this year, Abbotsford solicited bids for companies able to conduct CCTV inspections of nearly 20km of sewers..

Correction

In our weekly events round-up yesterday, the Chilliwack Flight Fest was mistakenly listed as taking place Friday and Saturday. The Chilliwack Flight Fest will actually run Saturday, August 19 and Sunday, August 20.

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