CBC Vancouver News at 11, Aug 13: Weather cools, but B.C. wildfire risk remains

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] this is CBC Vancouver News very apparent uh given Devon's death that something had gone tragic wrong on the site this is the whole of the organization um that needs to look at this and and do the right thing safety failures outlined in a new report paint a damning picture of what led up to the death of a young firefighter last summer plus the door to the suite uh was left open into the hallway and the fire uh spread significantly uncertainty for dozens of residents some with serious injuries forced out out of their Kitsilano apartment building by fire also a fresh Cod of promises from the premier for Highway One upgrades through the Fraser Valley the volume of traffic that's on this road means we can't do all of this work at the same time we have to do it in phases met with frustration from Mayors a few months before an election construction not even underway for two more years it's a little underwhelming hello I'm Tanya Fletcher thanks for joining us we begin in the interior where safety failures in a new report paint a damning picture of firefighting protocols it stemed from a work safe BC investigation into the death of Devon Gail she died when a burning tree fell on her near Revel Stoke last July the cbc's Brady Sten has more on the calls mounting for better training the death of Devon Gail sent a shock wave through the province just 19 years old Gail was already in her third season with the BC Wildfire service last summer friends and family members mourned her loss at a memorial service she was a light nobody met Devon without loving her you were instantly drawn to her beautiful sweet Pure Energy it was attended by Premier David eie and hundreds of her fellow Wildland firefighters now details have emerged about what led up to Gail's death and more importantly what didn't happen with regards to safety protocols around danger trees a work safe BC report says Gail was using a chaina to cut a log on the forest floor when a burning cedar tree fell and killed her two other firefighters were injured trying to save her the report lays out the missed safety steps prior to Gail's death including that firefighters brought up concerns to their supervisor about the Burning Tree but despite this the burning Cedar was not assessed and instead workers were told to use a heads up approach to the burning Cedar and stay away from it if they were uncomfortable working around it the report finds there were several young or new firefighters on the crew but there was no documentation they received the required young and new worker health and safety orientation or new recruit boot camp training before being deployed to this fire the report also finds the BC Wildfire service is aware of the safety concerns around dangerous trees but the normaliz a of risk has been Justified within the Wildfire Services culture and safety procedures are not being followed as a result the BC Wildfire service has responded to the report David Greer leads the organization this isn't um you know gross negligence by certain individuals this is this is a whole of this is this is the whole of the organization um that needs to look at this and and do the right thing on Wednesday Premier David eie said he's directing the Wildfire service to implement the report's recommendations it was a commitment that I made to Devon's family uh was that uh this death of a remarkable woman uh with all the potential in the world would not be in vain the union that represents provincial firefighters says the report shows the high level of burnout at the BC Wildfire service it says the high turnover means firefighters have to work long hours in extreme conditions an issue it says that needs to be addressed to make work conditions safer for all firefighters Brady Sten CBC News Colona well to Vancouver dozens of residents many of them seniors or people with disabilities are out of their homes indefinitely their housing complex in Kitsilano caught fire overnight forcing them to leave immediately as yes me f tells us it's not clear when they'll be able to return home residents say they were awoken by the sounds of screaming as flames scorch multiple units fire officials say all 38 people living in the building had to flee eight people were taken to hospital first cruise on scene found a suite on the second floor that was fully involved and had already transitioned to the third floor through an open window the deputy fire chief says while the investigation is still ongoing it appears the fire started on a couch on the second floor and that the man who lives in the suite is a smoker he says the elderly man suffered smoke inhalation and burns we've had extensive damage to the fire Suite of origin as well as the fire above unfortunately the door to the suite was left open into the hallway and the fire uh spread significantly into the second floor hallway the building owned by BC housing offers affordable housing to seniors and those living with disabilities residents are being allowed limited re-entry to recover items but fire officials say the building is uninhabitable with gas and power shut down as they wait to see when they can return displaced residents are being provided short-term accommodation food and clothing by the Vancouver Emergency Management agency yasa CBC News Vancouver uncertainty clouds the death of an indigenous infant the five-week old was under the care of BC's Ministry of Children and Family development the child's mother says social workers took the baby from her shortly after he was born due to suspicion of drug use well now his parents are pressing the government for answers they claim the reasons The Province took the baby were biased the fact that indigenous parents are more likely to be subject to these type of notifications birth alerts is uh is problematic and continues to perpetuate the systemic problems uh where indigenous families are not able to stay together and the government is intervening and taking these families apart in a statement to CBC News Minister Grace lur says she cannot publicly comment on this case in order to maintain confidentiality well five BC men have been charged in what RCMP are calling a drug super lab bust in Maple Ridge in Coquitlam officers seized 49 kilos of MDMA also known as e ecstasy they say the lab contained chemicals to produce 80 kg more the number of vessels that were present uh they could have potentially produced 40 kg of MDMA every 48 hours if they were continuously running so that gives you an idea of the scale of these super Labs the investigation in this case started in 2022 after four search warrants mounties had identified multiple people and properties involved and along with the drugs the Mercedes-Benz G-Class SUV a Tesla 3 and over $50,000 in cash we're also seed well the premier is pledging more relief for drivers on Highway 1 through the Fraser Valley it will ease commutes by car it will ease commutes by transit and it will ease the shipment of goods uh right across this country on the Trans Canada Highway The Province will spend $2.6 billion dollar to widen the Trans Canada in absord between the mount Leman exit and Highway 11 the project will eventually see the highway expanded through the suas Prairie toward chilak but construction isn't expected to start in on this phase until 2026 and won't be completed until 2031 the mayor of the township of Langley says while the funding is good news the timeline is simply too slow I think this has been a chronic issue for so long I think it is a little disappointing to see hearing about it being completed in 2031 um you know announced a few months before an election construction not even underway for two more years Premier eie acknowledges frustrations about the pace and Rising costs of the highway improvements blaming in part the 2021 floods and more expensive construction materials as factors in the delay a former Contender who ran to be leader of the BC liberals has left to join the BC conservatives in 2022 Gavin de went up against Kevin Falcon in the party leadership race now he's criticizing FAL Falcon's tenure and plans to run in Colona mission for the growing VC conservatives what I had seen is is unfortunately um the the party that I was a part of had had really just was falling apart at the seams unfortunately it is Kevin's leadership that has run BC united into the ground du also wrote a scathing opinion piece in the National Post claiming that quote Kevin Falcon took the wheel of a vehicle that once won races insisted he knew a shortcut and then drove off a cliff du his wife and two young children moved to Colona last year well still with politics a former bcmp who served the Fraser Valley for 20 years has died Full Speed Ahead and Damn the Torpedoes Chuck Straw's family says he died Tuesday in chilak after a courageous and exemplary battle with a rare form of lung cancer after working in the family logging business STW ran and won a riding in the Fraser Valley in 19 93 with the then Reform Party he served until 2011 under the Canadian Alliance in conservative banners and was at several points Federal minister of Transport Agriculture and then Indian Affairs his son Mark who followed in his Father's Footsteps in one Chuck seat after he retired says his dad's deep Christian faith was at the heart of who he was Chuck STW was 67 on tbc's wildfires now there are 394 Act fires burning in the province right now four of them of note the BC Wildfire service says rain is in the forecast for several areas and it's expected to bring much needed moisture showers are likely for the Northeast and the southeast right now almost 40% of active fires are classified as out of control more than onethird are burning in the Southeast fire Center well housing health care and education those are some of the key issues a new report from BC's human rights commissioner highlight as having the greatest human rights impact for British Colombians the systemic inequalities highlighted in this report impact all of us but disproportionately harm those who are marginalized in our society the 10 issue areas are described here are not experienced in isolation many residents of BC experience violations of their human rights in multiple areas of life in ways that intersect and compound the harm that they're experiencing the uh human rights commissioner says unaffordable inaccessible and inappropriate housing tops the list for human rights issues in BC Al to Veron now where the BCS PCA has seized 32 Pomeranian puppies and dogs from an quote irresponsible breeder they found the dogs in an unsanitary and unventilated garage CBC talked to the organization about this investigation we received a concern from a member of the public who had purchased a puppy from uh a breeder in Vernon and unfortunately the puppy soon became really ill uh she immediately took it to a vet and unfortunately it passed away the puppy well it was determined that the puppy had uh presented with the parvo virus our officers attended and when we attended there were a number of uh concerns and the owner surrendered four puppies to us um unfortunately two of these puppies didn't make it um they died of this this parvo virus our animal protection officers applied for and was successful in obtaining a warrant to search we attended the property and as a result 32 dogs uh including puppies were removed from the uh the the the home all the dogs were kept in a garage that were separated into into different pens there was very little bedding there was some sawdust or shavings on the floor diarrhea was present the the food and water containers were contaminated with flies and wasps there was no stimulation for them nothing is this is such a heartbreaking case because we we're really keeping our fingers crossed that these all these dogs will pull through and if there's enough evidence there um our animal protection officers will in all likelihood recommend charges to Crime councel well coming up next it was an accidental Discovery but now UBC researchers have created a new super black material we'll tell you what it could be used for after the break [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] welcome back researchers at UBC have created a new super black material it absorbs almost all light and could improve things like telescopes optical devices and consumer goods our science and climate specialist dargus mavi went to find out more at first glance this may look like a regular watch but if you look closely at the face you'll see almost nothing and that's what makes it so exciting underneath the glass is a brand new material that absorbs over 99% of all visible light this is Nixon the first Ultra black wood and researchers here at UBC are going to show us how to make it this black isn't like a pigment black it's called a structural black it's just based on that it's based on the structural uh the structure of the wood you you walk through a forest and you see a bunch of tall trees and you don't sometimes if it's like a you know like a really dense forest of all these mish mash of bushes you don't see the light coming through so that's what's happening super black materials have have a reflectant generally agreed to be below 1% so it means 99% of all of The Light Within A Defined uh wavelength range is absorbed by the material so hardly any visible light actually escapes ultraviolet and visible light all right this is our plasma reactor here and we're going to load it in right now so it creates um like a plasma which is kind of like a gas so so it hits that surface of the wood it first it causes chemical changes but also um plasma etching it removes the surface of the wood once we're done we release the air and then once the door the air is back to the room pressure the door will open and we'll open it right here and then this is when I take the sample Out ooh smelly yes there's a so this is what it looks like wow there is actually a white layer on the and that's like the fragments of the Ed plasma edging this is when we go into the room hood and we use air to clean the surface up a bit wow what was The Accidental Discovery Well The Accidental Discovery is interesting um we started off this work some years ago hoping to use use high energy plasmas to literally machine the wood surface to improve the water resistance of the surface and then I I said to Kenny um my graduate student who's done all the work um we should look at different surfaces of wood normally you use a surface like this which is the side grain but I said why don't we look at some end grain material so this is the direction in which the water flows in the tree right um and so Kenny did those experiments and brought a sample like this into my office and I said wow that's black in fact that's super black so what sets this apart from other Ultra black materials it's made from sustainable material so one one basswood tree could produce 200,000 watch faces uh or close to a million gemstones no mining involved just a natural material um easy to treat um cheap Darius we're shining a cell phone uh light through this uh Nixon gemstone and you can see the wood structure there so you can see the um the the pores that conduct the water in the tree you can see the growth ring we came up with this name it's a mixture um NY is the Great Goddess of Darkness um um and xylon is the Greek name for woods so we combine them to create the name Nixon we were the first people to make a super black material from wood all of these are so cool thank you so much for showing us but one last question when can I get this one in the store well Darius you're top of the waiting list oh so uh as soon as we make another [Music] one you're looking out a live shot of Science World tonight while that cooler and cloudier weather is translating to some rain we'll tell you where after the break stay with us [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] hey I'm rohi Joseph vibin is the new show all about discovering great new songs and fresh artists from across BC and Beyond stream vibing on CBC listen welcome back turning to weather news now Ernesto is a category 1 hurricane after dumping torrential rain and knocking out power right across Puerto Rico the storm is now turning North into the open Atlantic it's expected to strengthen again possibly into a category 3 now the Canadian Hurricane Center says it should hit south of Nova Scotia by Monday though it's too early to predict just how hard the weather update is brought to you by Direct by furnace to cool and clean the air in your home call Direct by furnace installing train the most reliable heating and cooling [Music] brand let's bring in our darias mavi for a look at the forecast in Darius that cloudy cool pattern seems to be here and in some places that means rain which is good news yes uh any rain is welcome espe because we've had so much lightning and dry lightning especially over the last few days and parts of the Interior today that was not the case most of that lightning uh or very little lightning happened at all mostly concentrated in a very small area around Revel Stoke and where we did see it uh not up in the Northeast which is where we were worried about uh some severe lightning happening now in terms of precipitation over the next few days we actually have a proper system rolling in rather than just that convective activity that we've had lately uh you'll notice some coming up towards the coast and then overnight Saturday Saturday into Sunday potentially some proper rain coming to parts of Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland so here in Vancouver it's too early to to give a put a proper number on it but I'd say anywhere from 5 to 15 millimet of rain are possible over that span from overnight Saturday into Sunday potentially continuing into Sunday morning we'll get a better picture of it over the next couple days but for now it does seem like a little bit of moisture is on the way so you know the flowers will be happy um I'll be less happy cuz I wanted to go to the beach but we'll take it uh will be sunny times uh Sunny breaks across the South Coast this weekend except maybe for the North Island and the west coast of the island uh but everybody should get at least a little bit of sunshine we saw there those temperatures staying relatively close to seasonal even though we have this low pressure system starting to move down the coast now we have that Ridge of high pressure setting up over the Prairie so they're going to be quite hot for the next few days uh and heading into next week we have this low pressure system which means Cloud coming in and out maybe some precipitation but generally temperatures will hover right around seasonal I know it won't field the most summary but uh we have been pretty consistently 2 or 3° maybe 4 degrees in some places above seasonal this summer so you know it's uh it's only fair balancing it out a little bit uh lots of sunshine across the province tomorrow but still at risk of lightning in a few places so we're going to be keeping an eye on that and on the island also some sunshine even for the west coast of the island tomorrow a little bit of relief before we head into that uh cloudier pattern Rainier pattern heading into the weekend here in Vancouver we do have a couple humid days Thursday and Saturday in particular Friday is bang on 22° uh right right about what we're actually expecting to see in terms of the actual temperature so a little bit of relief but uh yeah we've got some some rain ahead T it's been a while since we've seen this icon it's very true and yes as you said the grass will enjoy it I appreciate that thanks Darius thank you and that is your late news for this Wednesday August 14th for news anytime anywhere download the free CBC News app and you can always find Us online as well we're at cbc.ca slbc thanks so much for watching have a great night [Music] [Music] for