12th avenue child care to shut down
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in praise of a wandering spirit
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dynamite find in local building
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February 22 2013 www.burnabynewsleader.com
hang-glider pilot from fatal flight back in court. see Page a17
MLA decries sale of land and assets BC budget unveiled Wanda Chow
wchow@burnabynewsleader.com
Wanda ChoW/neWsleader
Michael Fex, like many tenants in the building at 3526 Smith Ave. that was destroyed in Sunday’s fire, lost everything in the blaze.
Fire victims forced to start over wchow@burnabynewsleader.com
Jamie Menzies had to put his beloved dog down on Valentine’s Day, but now he sees it as a blessing in disguise. Menzies, 40, was among the residents who narrowly escaped a fire that destroyed their Burnaby apartment complex at 3526 Smith Ave. early Sunday morning. “I really love my dog so I think I would’ve put myself at risk trying
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a building across the street.” of rubble, Menzies was among the Menzies’ girlfriend happened to many fire victims at the Salvation look out the window and got a face Army Metrotown’s facility on full of smoke. Nelson Avenue on Tuesday, where “She turned and told me ‘it’s real.’ emergency social services workers By the time she told me that, black met with them to assess their needs smoke was billowing out of the and provided food and support. baseboards.” Burnaby city hall manages the The hallway was dark and filled local response for Emergency with black smoke and the couple Management B.C., which had to crawl their way out of the typically provides 72 hours of building. accommodation after incidents such “It just happened so very fast.” as major fires. Tuesday was the last While Burnaby fire department day for most residents, who had continued4x1.25_bottle_depot_ad_final.pdf its investigation at the been at the Accent Inn. 1 staying 12-03-05 1:20 PM fire scene, now mostly just a pile please see ‘I don’t’, a3
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to get him out, so it was probably a blessing that he was gone.” Most residents lived in the building because it was a rarity—a pet-friendly building where dogs of all sizes were allowed, Menzies said. But apart from price, there was little else about it to recommend. “They did the bare minimum to keep that place going,” he said of the owners. False fire alarms were frequent enough that people had become complacent, he noted. This time, when they heard the alarm, it sounded faint, “almost like it was in
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With 12 weeks to go to the May 14 provincial election, the BC Liberal government has unveiled a balanced budget. Not so, says Burnaby-Deer Lake NDP MLA Kathy Corrigan. “It’s not really a balanced budget at all.” That’s because it includes revenue from the sale of $800 million in provincial assets, a move that is “not sustainable,” said Corrigan. She noted economist Don Drummond, in a report for the Ontario government, advised against using planned asset sales in budgets “because you don’t know what’s going to happen to the price of land.” The list of assets the province plans to put on the block includes a “vacant piece of land in Burnaby,” said Corrigan. While it’s unknown what property that refers to, she speculated it could be the former Willingdon youth detention centre at Willingdon Avenue and Canada Way as she’s received indications it’s going to be sold off. please see We’re, a5