Nice Ice!
Published Jan. 18
Williams Lake was not frozen over the holidays in 2023, but then a cold snap in January iced the lake up quickly.
While skiers were still without snow, the plummeting temperatures meant skaters and hockey players were able to enjoy some outdoor skating and ice conditions.
Extreme temperatures just meant they had to keep moving and dress warmly.
Fires destroy 4 homes, damages another in Cariboo-Chilcotin cold snap
Published Jan. 18
At least five different homes were destroyed or damaged by fire during the extreme cold weather event in the Cariboo Chilcotin in January 2024.
Temperatures dipped down across the region, with wind chills below -40 C causing frigid conditions for residents and firefighters.
The home of Jennifer and Steve Hohmann and their seven children who live on Higdon Road between Kersley and Quesnel was completely destroyed by fire on Wednesday, Jan. 10.
“It went so fast. You always hear ‘it’s faster than you think’ and that’s so true. Really fast,” Jennifer told Black Press.
At 150 Mile House, a home and outbuilding belonging to Brent and Judy Lamothe were destroyed by a fire on Thursday, Jan. 11.
“Despite the best efforts from everyone, the log house was a complete loss, along with our beloved puppy and cat,” Judy said in a social media post.
She told the Tribune for now the family is staying in a basement suite in Williams Lake until they can rebuild.
Cold weather impeded crews’ ability to suppress the fire, noted the CRD, adding the fire remains under investigation, however no arson is suspected.
In Tatla Lake, Kerry Lutz lost his home completely to a fire on Thursday, Jan. 11.
Melodie Gano of Tatla Lake said she got the call about the fire at 7:49 a.m. and by 8:14 a.m. it was fully involved.
“There were lots of people there to help, move vehicles further away from the fire,” Gano said. “But there wasn’t much anyone could do but stand there and watch the disaster happen.”
A family of six at Williams Lake First Nation had part of their home destroyed by a fire on Friday, Jan. 12 at Sugar Cane.
Emergency Support Services in Williams Lake helped support the family to stay in a motel, as they did not have fire insurance, but ESS manager Dave Dickson said ESS can only provide support for the first 72 hours with food, clothing and lodging.
On Tuesday, Jan. 9 the Big Lake Volunteer Fire and Rescue responded to a house fire in the region.
“The fire was contained and extinguished but the structure was lost,” said deputy fire chief Mark Wilkie, adding the cause of the fire is still unknown.
Wilkie said they fought the fire for six-and-a-half hours, with nine members and three apparatus.
“The home was unoccupied and there were no injuries,” he said.
Williams Lake power plant, city’s biggest tax payer gives notice
Published Feb. 8
Williams Lake’s largest single taxpayer put its employees and BC Hydro on notice in January of 2024.
Spokespersons for Atlantic Power Inc.’s Williams Lake power plant appeared as a delegation at a city council committee of the whole meeting on Feb. 6. They expected the plant would close by mid-January 2025 if something wasn't done to address a lack of available fibre which is limiting the plant’s viability.
The company has given a 12-month termination of contract notice to BC Hydro on their current contract for the Williams Lake plant.
Sean Gillespie, vice president of operations for Atlantic Power, and Frankie Nelson, on site business manager for the Williams Lake plant, spoke to Williams Lake mayor, council and staff in the Rick Hansen Boardroom at city hall, seeking city support to find a solution.
Gillespie told council the ideal solution would be a combination of higher rates and securing economically viable fibre to operate the facility.
As of December the future of the biomass energy plant was still up in the air, with Mayor Surinderpal Rathor saying in a December 2024 city council meeting, the premier's office has assured him they are continuing to look for a solution to maintain the energy plant.
The plant has given an extension on the deadline to retract their notice to end their contract and has enough fibre to operate until around March of 2025.
First-ever official ER closure at Cariboo Memorial Hospital in Williams Lake
Published Feb. 15
The emergency department in Williams Lake closed for the first time ever overnight on Feb. 12.
Interior Health made the announcement just hours before the Cariboo Memorial Hospital (CMH) was to close the ER from 8 p.m. on Feb. 12 until 6 a.m. on Feb. 13.
Interior Health cited physician shortages for the cause of the closure in their announcement on Monday afternoon.
Since the first closure in February, the emergency department saw multiple closures, especially during the summer months.
Fire season preparation underway in Williams Lake in March
Published March 21
BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) crews carried out prescribed burns within the city of Williams Lake on March 19.
Crews were on site March 18 preparing areas of the Stampede Grounds, a section along Gibbon Road and a park behind the Lake City Secondary School, and carried out the burns March 19.
BCWS worked with Williams Lake First Nation and Williams Lake Fire Department to conduct the operations.
Dylan Simpson, a wildfire protection officer with the Central Cariboo Zone of the Cariboo Fire Centre, said the prescribed burn on March 19 helped clear dry grass and brush.
“The goal is to reduce the hazards,” said Simpson.
“The fire department deals with a lot of calls that happen in this rodeo grounds especially, and so we’re reducing the hazard, improving the site and just making it overall safe.”
Williams Lake shelter plans moving ahead
Published April 11
BC Housing is moving ahead on the temporary emergency homeless shelter at 98 First Avenue S. in Williams Lake, the old Elk's Hall.
“I think we’re in a very good position here,” said Tyler Baker, director of regional development Interior for BC Housing.
“We have the support of the city to move forward quickly and to expedite the renovations so that we can bring people inside. That’s really what the main thrust of this is, to provide shelter spaces so that people can come indoors.”
Baker said the project will be a priority in order to ensure they can have people indoors at the shelter before the winter.
The building did experience a flood recently, and they are still assessing the impacts of the flood on their project, but the budget for the renovations at this point is for $1.2 million in upgrades. The project will be for a 40-person emergency shelter to make a safe and functional facility for people needing access to temporary shelter.
The current shelter at the Hamilton Hotel is not a safe environment, according to staff, noting drug users need to be able to be monitored.
Baker said the operating budget for the facility will be an ongoing investment of $2 million into the community to run the site, which the provincial government confirmed Friday will come from the province’s Permanent Housing Plan.
As of December, the shelter had not been completed and the latest update from BC Housing gave an estimated completion date of spring of 2025.
B.C. Interior man found guilty of manslaughter in 19-year-old woman’s death
Published April 24
Waylon Harry, 25, has been found guilty of manslaughter in the December 2021 death of Kendra Samson, 19, near Williams Lake.
Harry and Samson were members of Esk’etemc First Nation, just south of Williams Lake where they both lived.
An autopsy showed ligature strangulation as the cause of her death inside the home Harry shared with his mom.
Friends, members of the community and support workers filled a Williams Lake Supreme Court room to standing room only on Friday, April 26, to hear Madame Justice Marguerite Church deliver her written decision.
Church said she agreed Harry had committed an unlawful act and that the unlawful act caused Samson’s death. But due to Harry’s level of intoxication, as well as the level of Samson’s intoxication, she did not believe Harry had the intent required to be found guilty of murder.
Church also said there was no apparent motive as the two were good friends.
She summarized testimony heard during the trial and said witnesses described seeing a line across Samson’s neck from being strangled, some bruising to her cheeks and temples.
Church also said it appeared the pair had been drinking through the night, and Harry's mother found him the next morning after he called her for a ride. He was sitting on his bed, and Samson was laying with her head toward the wall and a cell phone cord visible from behind her neck.
His mother told the court Harry tried to stop her from calling 911, sounding scared but forceful, and told his mom he had done it in self-defense or that he was trying to put her to sleep.
When paramedics arrived, they pronounced Samson dead.
Once Church finished reading her decision, one man in the courtroom yelled out, “Why did you do it?” then crumbled into his seat, sobbing audibly.
Harry, who was wearing a black suit and white shirt, his hair newly-cut, had his head down through most of the time Church was giving her decision. As he was escorted out of the courtroom by sheriffs, others in the courtroom were sobbing audibly, some hugging each other.
The sentencing has been postponed until April 22, 2025.
Williams Lake business owners hopeful after devastating fire
Published June 20
Markey Mechanical Ltd. owners Keith and Marg Tjosvold remain optimistic despite losing their building and two service vehicles to a fire early Sunday, June 16.
Keith said they hope to have a temporary building firmed up by the end of the week to use as their base until they can rebuild.
"Williams Lake is a very supportive community," Keith told the Tribune Tuesday. "We have received lots of texts, phone calls and messages from people."
Markey's service technicians are continuing to work and Keith and Marg are rounding up more machinery so they can resume full operations.
"Basically everything was destroyed," Keith said.
Williams Lake Fire Department assistant Cory Boyd said a call came initially for a vehicle fire at 11:57 p.m. Saturday at the 1170 Mackenzie Ave. South location.
"When our duty officer arrived, the fire had extended into the awnings of the building and started to penetrate the roof," Boyd said.
Boyd said the roof partially collapsed from fire damage shortly after and crews worked to stop the spread.
"The adjacent portion of the building was pressurized to help prevent the fire from spreading. The fire was stopped in the ceiling before entering the shop beside the pressurized portion."
Once the fire was under control around 3 a.m., the ladder and duty truck with a four-man crew stayed on scene to extinguish hot spots where the roof had collapsed and were on scene until around 7:30 a.m.
Keith said some investigators were expected to visit the site on Thursday.
"Two of the vans burned up and it looks like someone was siphoning gas out of both of those because the door for both of those caps were open and the caps were missing and the yellow spout for a jerry can was laying on the ground beside there," Keith said. "I don't know how it turned from siphoning gas to burning."
He said they had two insurance companies because they own the building with Al Waterhouse under one policy and then Markey has its own insurance.
"We are learning the ropes on how it works when your building burns down," he said.
Students return home, to school following Cariboo bus crash
Published June 27
Students and adults on the School District 27 (SD 27) bus which crashed down a steep embankment just north of Lac la Hache Friday, June 21 continue to recover from their injuries.
“There were no life-threatening injuries [on the bus], but there were broken bones,” said SD 27 superintendent Chris van der Mark of the students and adults who suffered varying injuries.
“It’s as best as we could have hoped for given the circumstances.”
The bus was bringing 31 Grades 6 and 7 100 Mile House and Horse Lake elementary school students home from a field trip at Gavin Lake when it left the highway and went over a steep embankment on a corner at Butler Road north of Lac La Hache.
There was a subsequent collision on the highway where a pedestrian was struck by a vehicle. BC Emergency Health Services (BCEHS) attended the scene but despite life-saving efforts, the person did not survive, noted RCMP.
Witnesses on the scene said it was a good Samaritan who was struck trying to cross the highway to help.
Crystal Dawn Langton, principal of 100 Mile Elementary, said her heart stopped when she got the call the bus carrying her students had been involved in an accident.
"The information trickled in student by student as that information was released to us," Langton said. "There's sort of dichotomous reaction. There's the relief that all of my kids are being returned to their families, but still that sickening feeling in your heart that your kids are hurt. It's sickening worrying about the kids, their parents and their families."
Multiple resources were dispatched to the scene including 11 ambulances and response units with primary care and advanced care paramedics, seven air ambulances with critical care paramedics, and multiple supervisors and area managers, confirmed BCEHS.
Van der Mark confirmed students treated at Cariboo Memorial Hospital in Williams Lake have since been released to their parents.
