B.C. wildfire behaviour decreases
Vancouver Watch
Firefighters are marking success in all areas of the province as wildfire behaviour decreases, including in Squamish.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBC
28 minutes ago
- CBC
Grizzly bears, cougars, sheep and deer met without incident during G7, officials say
As the G7 summit concludes in the popular wilderness destination of Kananaskis, Alta., officials say provincial teams managed frequent animal encounters without serious incident. Alberta conservation officers and fish and wildlife officers responded to occurrences involving grizzly bears, black bears, cougars, moose, bighorn sheep and deer during the summit, according to a spokesperson with Alberta's Ministry of Public Safety and Emergency Services. "None of these occurrences involved any abnormal interactions with the wildlife in question and our standard methods to safely move them away were successful," Sheena Campbell wrote in an email. Officials responded to approximately 200 wildlife-related incidents, about half involving grizzly or black bears, said Bryan Sundberg with Alberta Forestry and Parks. All were minor in nature, requiring only minimal intervention with no relocations or harm to wildlife, he said. "Primarily, we would respond to areas on foot ... to areas where wildlife complaints were received, and use noisemaking activities," he said. Response teams also used thermal imaging cameras and leveraged RCMP drones to monitor real-time wildlife activity. "Additionally, specially-trained K9 teams, 'bear dogs,' [were] on-site to support our proactive approach," Campbell wrote. Bear dogs were embedded with wildlife mitigation and response teams, primarily to deter bears safely. Complex, wild environment In the run-up to the summit, officials highlighted the "complexity" of hosting the summit in the remote terrain of the Kananaskis wilderness. Preventing encounters with bears was of particular focus, both for the safety of attendees and given past incidents. The last time the summit was held in Kananaskis in 2002, a bear that got too close to the site was tranquilized and later died after falling from a tree. Nick de Ruyter, program director of the BioSphere Institute's WildSmart program, said this is a busy time of year for bear populations. "They've come out of their dens of hibernation, in April and May. They're hungry, they're looking for food," he said. While he doesn't know the exact numbers, de Ruyter estimated there are around 65 grizzly bears and more than 200 black bears in the Bow Valley and Kananaskis Country area. There being no wildlife conflicts during the G7 despite an influx of people speaks to how tolerant and adaptable local wildlife is, de Ruyter said. "Ninety-nine per cent of the time, they do the right thing. They're just trying to make a living out on the landscape, and they will avoid us," he said. "They'll avoid encounters and conflict with people as much as they can. And so we just need to do our part and respect that."
CTV News
42 minutes ago
- CTV News
Portable toilet returns: City relents after homeless Londoners used buckets and dug holes in Watson Street Park
Bucket in Watson Street Park that encampment residents say was used as a toilet. (Daryl Newcombe/CTV News London) Homeless Londoners living in Watson Street Park spent about seven weeks without a portable toilet, so some of the 40 people resorted to using buckets, plastic bags or even holes dug into the ground. 'It's very dehumanizing,' says a woman named Moon, who describes her options when public washrooms were closed for the night or located too far away. 'It depends on your urgency, I suppose. How badly you have to use the washroom. So they brought us buckets, bright orange Home Depot buckets and garbage bags.' In recent weeks, removing the human waste from the park required hiring a private company to perform costly biohazard clean-ups. 'It was costing around $1,500 to do a clean-up, and it's $400 for the porta-potty, so even just from a budgetary point of view it wasn't sustainable,' explains Coun. Hadleigh McAlister. Following an encampment fire in April, City Council supported McAlister's motion to immediately switch to a mobile system of delivering basic needs (food, water, hygiene) to the park's residents. The decision resulted in the removal of the stationary service depot and two portable toilets. On Wednesday, a portable toilet returned. 'When we closed down the (stationary) service depot, the bathrooms were kind of bundled with that (decision) at the time,' McAlister explains. 'But we've now gone back and looked at it and determined we can actually have one to two porta-potties in Watson Park.' The ward councillor says he worked with civic administration to ensure that returning a portable toilet would not contradict the previous council direction. 'Once we moved to the mobile model, nothing actually precluded reintroducing bathrooms. It was a separate service,' he says. 'It's kind of viewed as something that we could provide to any park and not necessarily something that was specific to encampments supports.' The stationary service depot had been criticized for attracting larger numbers of people living in tents to cluster in Watson Street Park. McAlister says the city has subsequently improved enforcement of encampment rules in Watson Street Park. 'What we're seeing now is more proactive enforcement in terms of the rules, our by-law staff are going down there more frequently and ensuring that the rules are being adhered to,' he adds. The provision of food, water and other basic needs to the encampment will continue to be delivered via the council-endorsed mobile model intended to reduce the clustering of tents.
CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
‘Very impressive new facility': Winnipeg's newest firehall now open
Winnipeg's newest firehall is officially in operation. The city unveiled the new Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service (WFPS) Station #9 in Windsor Park. WFPS Chief Christian Schmidt said this new station has been designed to fit how Winnipeg is growing. 'This particular station combines two different older stations; the previous Station #9 on Marion Street and the previous Station #15, which was on this exact site,' Schmidt said. 'These two smaller stations had gotten older over time and had less space and capacity. This station places response efficiency and environmental efficiency at the forefront.' The new station has five bays with a fire engine and crew. A rescue unit, the hazardous materials team, an ambulance and its crew, and a fire investigator are all housed at the station. The station is also the first city building to have geothermal ground source heat pumps for both heating and cooling. The building is expected to reduce emissions by 98.6 per cent compared to other buildings its size. 'The team has worked hard to reclaim wood from the previous buildings for use in this station and includes details down to ensuring that the shrubs around this property are drought resistant,' said Schmidt. Winnipeg fire Station #9 The bays doors opened at Station #9 in Windsor Park on June 18, 2025. (Daniel Timmerman/CTV News Winnipeg) 'This is a very impressive new facility. It's one of the greenest buildings in the city's inventory, and it's going to help us deliver faster, more effective emergency service to Windsor Park and the surrounding neighbourhoods,' said Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham. The $16 million building also features recovery ventilators, a training room, an air compressor, and bifold bay doors, which are supposed to reduce response times by 15 seconds. 'This reflects the kind of investment that we are making as a city and that our city needs to keep making as we grow - investments that strengthen public safety, public health, investments that modernize our infrastructure, investments that reduce our long-term impact on our environment,' said Gillingham. This station is part of the WFPS master plan that came out in 2020, which highlights the need for stations in more strategic locations, which in turn will help with response times.
