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F RIDAY , N OVEMBER 19, 2010
36 Pages
Page A23
YOUR SOURCE FOR LOCAL NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER AND ENTERTAINMENT abbotsfordtimes.com
Hindu priest fired over sex charges
RAFE ARNOTT RArnott@abbotsfordtimes.com
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n Abbotsford Hindu priest was fired Tuesday after being charged with sex offences against two young girls who worshipped at the temple where he worked. Karam Vir, 31, was arrested Monday, appeared in court Tuesday, and then was released on bail after surrendering “A more hardhis passport. V i r, w h o h o l d s working guy we Indian citizenship, have never met.” is in Canada on a work visa and has been involved with – Pawan Gandha the Hindu Temple at 31545 Walmsley Ave. in Abbotsford for about two years. Prior to that he spent time in Ontario. “ We were shocked – ever yone was shocked by this,” Vijay Gautam, general secretary of the Fraser Valley Hindu Society, which runs the Abbotsford temple, told The Province. see CHARGES, page A7
Winter weather opens shelters Temperatures dip to -7 C ROCHELLE BAKER RBaker@abbotsfordtimes.com
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ission and Abbotsford extreme weather shelters are opening their doors with predictions that the first blast of winter will arrive this weekend. Mission’s extreme weather program was launched last night following yesterday’s forecast of snow flurries and an overnight low of 0 C. see SHELTER, page A27
– STEVE OLDROYD/FOR THE TIMES
An Abbotsford firefighter knocks down flames at a townhouse complex under construction that was destroyed by fire early Wednesday morning. For more blaze photos, as well as images of the clean-up and damage to neighbouring homes and cars, see www.abbotsfordtimes.com.
Suspicious blaze guts townhouse Damage pegged at more than $350,000 RAFE ARNOTT RArnott@abbotsfordtimes.com
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suspicious blaze gutted an unfinished Abbotsford townhouse project in the 30700 block of Cardinal Avenue Wednesday morning. Firefighters reported flames more than 50 feet high when they arrived at 7 a.m., with the fire throwing off heat so intense it melted nearby vehicles’ tires, bumpers, paint and blew out car and home windows. Vinyl siding on adjacent homes was melted and preliminary esti-
mates put damages in excess of $350,000. The exact cause of the fire is under investigation, but Abbotsford fire prevention officer Steve Oldroyd said a squatter trying to stay warm could have been the culprit. “There are reports of a homeless person staying in the house as a shelter,” Oldroyd said. “There is a potential for fire to begin through either cooking, keeping warm or smoking, and that would make it an accidental fire . . . we’re labeling it as undetermined, but suspicious.”
Firefighters concentrated their ed the blaze. efforts on hosing down neigh“We have to meticulously go bouring homes in an effort to through [the scene] to ensure mitigate heat damage, and pre- that we don’t have a tragedy inside those burnt-out units,” vent the fire from spreading. Because the townhouses he said, referring to the poslacked drywall, which Oldroyd sibility that whoever may have started the blaze said helps conmight have been t a i n h e a t , a n d First reported @ had nothing but abbotsfordtimes.com consumed in it. “It’s a frequent open wood framing throughout, the blaze was report for us to have buildings under construction of people incredibly intense. Major crime detectives from stealing copper or using [unfinthe Abbotsford Police Depart- ished buildings] as temporary ment were on-scene at the fire housing,” he said. “I think it’s a reasonable while it was still raging, Const. deduction that a fire could have Ian MacDonald said. Police are also trying to deter- been set inside inadvertently by mine if a homeless person start- someone trying to keep warm.”
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