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- Jan 5 - A week of fires
Jan 5 - A week of fires
Island's first 2025 baby + BC's top baby names. Driver at large after 3-wheel getaway.
Capital Daily Team
January 05, 2025
Good morning !
Thank you for waiting for our return as we took our first-ever holiday break here at the Capital Daily newsletter. Today we continue catching you up on what happened during the past week-plus, with stories below on a bizarre Christmas Eve car chase, several New Year's Eve fires, and some New Year's Day babies.
Remember, the latter part of this Sunday edition is now exclusively for Capital Daily Insiders. We're adding to the Sunday newsletter and tweaking it. But in the coming weeks, more and more of it will be reserved for those who sign up as supporters.
It's one of the ways we're thanking Insiders for helping to fund our local journalism and making it possible for us to deliver news roundups, original stories, event listings, and more to all of you on all the other days of the week.
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— Cam
Today’s approx. read time: 5 minutes / 8 minutes
🌡️ Weather Forecast
NEWS
Week of major fires:
A local killed, a school singed, & an Island landmark lost
Telegraph Cove before (Google Maps) & during (Port McNeill Fire Rescue) the blaze
Resident dead after Saanich fire
One week ago, a Sunday night fire at a four-storey condo building drew 22 firefighters. They contained the fire and extricated the person in the condo in which the blaze appears to have started—but that resident later died in hospital. [Times Colonist]
Historic boardwalk & attractions burned in Telegraph Cove
The whale museum, pub, cafe, some homes, other historic buildings including a heritage manor, and parts of the boardwalk itself were all damaged or destroyed. The blaze began in the major East Island tourist destination around 5am New Year's Eve morning. The cause is still under investigation.
The resort drew people from around the world to the small community. Its best-known feature was the whale museum, built up over decades into what its operators say was the largest collection of its kind in Western Canada. They have vowed to rebuild and are trying to fundraise a million dollars.
View Royal fire near fire hall displaced 9 & killed dog
It started around 1pm New Year's Eve and nobody but the family pet was home, View Royal Fire Chief Paul Hurst told CHEK. The house on Island Hwy near Helmcken Rd is close to the fire station, and Hurst said locals were banging on the door to alert them. Colwood, Esquimalt, and Langford crews joined the response.
Duncan school fire on New Year's Eve
The fire damaged a pod behind Alexander Elem., the Cowichan Valley School District says, but did not spread to the rest of the school and will not delay Monday's reopening. RCMP deem the fire suspicious. It came about 6 weeks after another school fire, in Campbell River, which was later determined to have been spontaneous combustion.
⚠️ Capital Bulletin
Cloud & rain return this week after sun tomorrow
Road closure: Belleville from Menzies to Oswego will be closed for work for six weeks, starting Mon.
Driving today? Check the current traffic situation via Google.
NEWS
The Island's first baby of 2025
At 12:07am on Wednesday, Vic General welcomed 8.3lb Zion Ebo Zormelo-Kika, the first baby of the new year. Zormelo-Kika, 0, was not the first 2025 baby in BC, however.
That distinction went to Emerson Hill of Kamloops, born at 12:02am at the Royal Inland Hospital.
Last year the first BC baby was born in New West right as midnight struck, but the first Island baby (Gus Mitchell, also born at Vic General) didn't come until after 2am.
The Island did have BC's first baby overall back in 2022. That baby was born at 12:04am—a week early, without a name finalized—to a Salt Spring couple at, once again, Vic General.
Online bets on first BC baby’s location
Up until mid-Monday, BC's legal gambling site was taking bets on which hospital would deliver the first baby. BC Women's Hospital carried the highest odds, promising $35 on a $10 bet. Lucky gamblers who put $10 on Royal Inland received $260.
2024’s top BC baby names
A matching set of Oliver & Olivia topped the list released by the province on Tuesday. Both leapfrogged last year's top name Noah, which is now #4. Liam, Theodore, and Leo all remained in the top 10, while 2023's Jack, Emma, Sophia, & Ethan were replaced by Charlotte, Lucas, Isla, & Amelia.
Compare the popularity of various baby names over time with BC's interactive name chart.
NEWS
Driver still at large after 3-wheeled truck led a police chase up Douglas on Xmas Eve
Still (cropped) from video going around online and linked below.
The truck, sans one wheel, was recorded on Christmas Eve afternoon driving past Mayfair. A second video shows numerous police cars in distant pursuit [see Facebook links below].
VicPD said that its officers pursued a stolen vehicle downtown but broke off pursuit when it ran a red. Officers then found the truck parked and tried and failed to capture it again—causing it to lose the wheel.
Another video shows the truck lurching around a residential area near Admirals.
No injuries were reported, and the truck itself has since been found—but not the driver.
This was a separate Dec. 24 incident from what police say was an impaired Honda Civic driver damaging vehicles in Rockland / Fernwood.
⭐️ Capital Picks
🌳 A beaver construction site on Gabriola Island. [Facebook photos]
🦅🦴 The bird & the bones at a roadside in Port Alberni. [Facebook photos]
🥘 Victorians’ favourite restaurants: Go to Tasting Victoria to download the full pdf of readers' choices for the best local places to eat, drink, and be merry.
🍂 Alpaca rolls in the leaves at Beacon Hill Children's Farm. [Instagram photos & video]
🌲 You can get your tree chipped today at one of several local schools and other venues. [VicNews roundup]
Upgrade to an Insider membership to keep reading the rest of the newsletter, including events today and this week, briefs on an incorrigible sea lion and a Celsius anniversary, and an extended news roundup from during and after the break.
