2603 replies to this topic

[G-Man]

Ouch!

[LJ]

Apparently he did NOT put out the cigarette.

[G-Man]

Anyone know what the big fire by the Johnson Street Bridge was?

[Mike K.]

What time of day?

[sebberry]

Anyone know what the big fire by the Johnson Street Bridge was?

I think it was deliberately set by some kids, or at least that's what I heard on the scanner.

[G-Man]

I guess about 4pm? Smoke was billowing over downtown. It smelled like wood burning.

[HB]

It was on Radio news

[HB]

Heard it was the area behind Northern Junk Buildings.
A common area for people to hang out for drinking smoking and copulation.
Not necessarily in that order and yes I have witnessed it all over the years.

[D.L.]

grass fire - http://imgur.com/WIE3303

[Mike K.]

Henderson Road was closed today due to what appeared to be either a fire or another incident requiring the services of a fire department. Police had closed Henderson off at Cedar Hill X and at Foul Bay Road.

[larrobb]

^ natural gas leak, Fortis called for assistance from Oak Bay Fire.

[Rob Randall]

Times Colonist:

1999:

The body of a boy, believed to be 14, was pulled Monday afternoon from Thetis Lake, one of the most popular swimming holes for Victoria-area residents.

The victim was believed to be a Chinese exchange student, visiting the lake with a group of exchange students.

A Taiwanese university exchange student at Thetis Lake with her class drowned in July 2006. Responding fire, ambulance and other emergency crews were heckled and pelted with beer bottles from drunk male youths at the scene.

The [2006] drowning death of a 24-year-old Taiwanese student who barely understood English could prompt significant changes in what type of warning signs are displayed at Thetis Lake Regional Park.

Park manager Christine Morissette said it is "very likely" that text signs warning of environmental dangers, such as steep drop- offs, will be replaced with graphic signs more easily deciphered by those who have limited understanding of the English language.

[Baro]

"emergency crews were heckled and pelted with beer bottles from drunk male youths at the scene. "

What the hell?!

[ZGsta]

I was there for that one in 1999, scarily similar sort of situation to what I've heard about the drowning a couple days ago. Where there was a language barrier preventing the kids from communicating what was wrong. And honestly, they were far too timid in trying to communicate the gravity of the situation. From where I was, people were convinced that he had gone missing in the woods around the beach so people were going out searching. It took a while to come out that, no, he was missing in the water.

(I can't remember if he was out swimming or had fallen in off the railings).

[sebberry]

A drowning in the Okanagan this weekend, along with the one at Thetis Lake, pushed British Columbia’s total number of drownings this summer to 43 — more than double the 20 deaths reported over the whole season last year, the RCMP reported Sunday.

TC Link


Why the spike in drownings, I wonder?

[aastra]

From past issues of the TC:

August, 2012:

The B.C. Coroners Service is urging people to be cautious on the ocean, lakes and rivers after 34 people drowned - including nine on Vancouver Island - in the past two months

On Friday, coroner Barbara McLintock released statistics showing 34 people drowned between July 1 and Aug. 24, up from 22 people in July and August 2011 and 24 people in the same months in 2010.

August, 2006:

A total of 27 water-related recreational deaths took place in 2004, 13 of which involved swimming, according to the most recent annual statistics available from the B.C. Coroners Office.

"We see too many needless deaths," she (Rose Stanton, regional coroner for Vancouver Island) said, noting there were only two swimming-related drownings in B.C. in July 2005.

[LJ]

We were at Shawnigan Lake a few years back and at a very small public access road end a Chinese kid drowned. We were all sitting on a dock about 50 yards away and didn't know anything was wrong until an ambulance and fire truck showed up. There was a group of 4-5 foreign nationals there and they didn't say a thing or shout for help or anything.

[VicHockeyFan]

We were at Shawnigan Lake a few years back and at a very small public access road end a Chinese kid drowned. We were all sitting on a dock about 50 yards away and didn't know anything was wrong until an ambulance and fire truck showed up. There was a group of 4-5 foreign nationals there and they didn't say a thing or shout for help or anything.

How do you know everyone was foreign?

[Bingo]

TC Link
Why the spike in drownings, I wonder?

More people swimming due to the warmer weather.

[sebberry]

More people swimming due to the warmer weather.

Are there that many more people at the beaches and lakes this year?

This year's swimming season is barely half over, yet there's been more than twice the number of drowinings than for the entire season last year.