.¥ NEWS photos Brad Ledwidge A helicopter provides liquid relief to firefighters manning the Maplewood Fiats side of a Thursday's waterfront blaze. Smoke from the biaze was visible from miles around. A Toiko Industries’ site manag- er Vern Parkstrom (below) looks grim as his mill burns to the ground. Sunday, August 37, 1997 ~ North Shore News — 3 id. NEWS proto NORTH Vancouver District firefighters perform in the heat of their battle to contro! the biaze at the old Tolko industries cedar mill Thursday night (above). Two Vancouver fireboats (far left) assist the land-based fire- fighters. A fireman douses a Maplewood Flats flare-up (left). Torch sparks mill’s sawdust Fram page 1 all equipment had been or removed prior to the fire. “It was just scrap metal that was being salvaged at chis time,” said Parkstrom. “We were going to start demolition of the building next week.” He said losses suffered by the company are insignificant. When asked about the identity of the sai- vage company performing demoli- tion preparation on the building, he said “no comment.” About an hour after the start of the fire casterly winds threatened to spread the blaze as several yrass fires sprung up on the grounds of the neighboring Maplewood Flats bird sanctuary, forcing firefighters and a Greater Vancouver Regional District fire crew away from the evening’s main attraction A helicopter assisted in the batde to save the bird sanctuary by drop- ping loads of water onto the flare- ups. However, damage to the estu- aty was limited to a few scorched paths of grass. Ernie Kennedy, one of the war- dens working at the sanctuary, saw th«: blaze start and worked into the nizht putting our the flare-ups on the property's grass field. “We could see the fire inside and it wasn’t smoky yet and i thought, whoa,” said Kennedy. Together with 2 co-worker, Kennedy calied the fire department. The rnagnitude of the blaze also attracted spectators from far and wide, including North Vancouver District Mayor Don Bell. “I was driving along Marine Dive and saw the smoke and was curious, so t called the fire depart: ment and came down,” said Beil. The mayor said he initially drove to the parking lot of the Canadian Occidcoral Peroleum Ltd. chemicals plant just west of the fire. “I thought it would be a safe place to watch it from after the review,” said Bell. He was referring to a public mect- ing last Tuesday, which focused -on safety issues surrounding the CanOxy plant at 100 Amberst Ave. As chronicled in the Aug. 15 News, the reports presented at the meeting addressed various emergency scenar- ios, including fires, at the plant, which produces mainly chlorine as well as caustic soda and muriatic acid. sDam accident kills Cap coho .Jammed control ‘valve sends torrent of water down NV river By Robert Gatster News Reporter robert@nsnews.com A Cleveland Dam mishap last Monday night has left 180 spawn- ing coho salmon dead, and the Capilano Reservoir depleted. “We had a malfunction with one of the control valves which operates the gate of the Cleveland Dam,” said Paul Archibald, supervi- sor of the GVRD’s water planning and opera- tions division. “The valve seized.” Archibald said the faulty valve was replaced on Thursday and is being monitored. During the incident, the valve seized with the gate holding water in the reservoir stuck open, resulting in water rushing out and rais- ing the Capilano River's water level consider- ably. When the valve problem was corrected about an hour later, the river's water level sud- denly returned to its previous mark, stranding fish in land-locked pools and floundering on the surrounding rocks. Capilano Fish Hatchery manager Robin Dickson was part of a team that combed the river banks the next morning in search of sur- viving fish. In addition to hatchery staff members, the group consisted of six Greater Vancouver Regional District employees and volunteers. While they managed to save approximately 100 fish, nearly twice as many had perished. “The majonty (of the dead fish) were near the hatchery ... they were bagged up and dis- posed of,” said Dickson. “It’s not a very pleas- ant thing to find a bunch of salmon high and dry on the rocks.” Department of Fisheries and Oceans head biologist Steve Macfarlane said he asked the GVRD for details of the incident. “Until such time as we gee some kind of information back from them (GVRD}) we real- ly don’t know if there were actions that went against fisheries regulations,” said Mactarlane. “My initial concern was getting out and sal- vaging the fish — that was our first priority.” In addition to the dead fish, the depletion of the Capilano reservoir is also of concern to the GVRD’s Archibald. “We're most disappvinted to have lost the water at this time of year,” said Archibald. He said the water level within the reservoir dropped by about one foot during the mal- function. The reservoir’s total height is about 105 feet. Although the amount of water tat escaped the reservoir was only a small portion of its capacity, it still managed to make quite a splash downstream. Jean Baker, a resident of a building on the edge of the river, was startled by the sound of rushing, water in the dead calm of a summer night. “I was just lying on the living room couch .. all of a sudden there was a rushing noise,” said Baker. I really dida’t know whar it was, It kind of frightened me.” As her mind raced to explain the phenome- non, she said no reasonadle ario came to her mind. “The only thing [ could think of was that it was vandalism, why would anyone in their right mind waste water right now?” said Baker. The Cleveland Dam is in its 42nd year of service, and Archibald said it is needs an increasing amount of scrutiny “This is the first time w had an acci- dental release of water from the dam and we hope the last,” he said.