All Posts Tagged With: "fire"
Buckwild star’s death, fire near York & OPIRG at Carleton
What students are talking about today (April 2nd)
Shane Gandee of Buckwild (MTV)
1. The star of the MTV reality show Buckwild has died. Shane Gandee and two men, also dead, were last seen leaving a local bar in the rural town of Sissonville, West Virginia. They told bar patrons they were going to drive their truck off-road, a sport known as “muddin’” among the country-loving college-aged kids followed by MTVs cameras. The gossip site TMZ reports that carbon monoxide poisoning is being explored as a possible cause of death and that Gandee’s truck’s exhaust pipe may have been blocked by mud.
2. Twenty people, including some students, were displaced by a fire that destroyed two townhouses and damaged a third near York University on Monday, reports CBC News. York administration offered those affected by the fire temporary shelter.
Continue reading Buckwild star’s death, fire near York & OPIRG at Carleton
Three dead after fire at Victoria student rental
Blaze may have started on porch
Chad Hipolito/CP
This story was updated Feb. 17 at noon EST.
Horrified neighbours watched helplessly as a house fire in Victoria claimed the lives of three young adults early Saturday.
Fire Capt. Bob Jones said flames were shooting out from the back and front of the house and two vehicles in the driveway were ablaze when firefighters arrived at about 4:30 a.m.
“The house is only, literally, 50 feet away from the back of the fire hall,” Jones said.
“It really got going quickly and it was windy, and that really helped spread the fire throughout the house.”
The victims were a young man and two young women, Jones said, adding it’s believed they were all students who rented the house. The victims names have not yet been released.
Jones said there was a party at the house on Friday night and that several out-of-town guests were staying there.
“Our evacuee assistance program has relocated some of them from out of town and put them up in accommodation for the night.”
Steve Hicks, who lives next door, said he was among a group of people who stood on the street and watched firefighters carry a body out on a stretcher as the house burned down.
“My upstairs tenant’s son, I think, put in the first call to the fire department. Then my tenant banged on the door and woke me up and we got outside.”
Hicks said most of the people living in the house were in their 20s.
“There’s no official word, but the fire appears to have started on the side porch at the front of the house. It’s covered and they have a couple of couches there, where people would sit around and smoke.”
Hicks said he was watching firefighters investigating near the porch on Saturday afternoon as he tried to process what he’d witnessed just hours earlier.
“When you’re out there at four in the morning and there’s a blaze going you can’t really process it. It takes a few hours. I’m not feeling too good right now. When you know that people lost their lives right there you don’t think it’ll shake you up that much, but I think it has.”
—Camille Bains
What students are talking about today (October 1 edition)
London shooting, Regina theft and Toronto mega-project
A Toronto development that would include 80-story towers and space for OCAD U. (Gehry International)
1. Students at Western University in London, Ont. had their homecoming weekend marred by the shooting death of 21-year-old Terrell Johnson off-campus early Sunday. A 28-year-old man was also taken to hospital. Joshua Carter, 22, is charged with second-degree murder.
2. Hannim Nur, the student who resigned from her post as president of the University of Regina’s Students’ Union (URSU), did so because she stole $700 of student money from the Canadian Federation of Students Saskatchewan by forging signatures on cheques when she was Chair. A statement from CFS-S says that the money was repaid and that they’ve updated procedures to reduce the chance of it happening again. Questions remain as to why Nur continued to work at URSU after she admitted the forgery to CFS.
3. A proposed mega-development on King Street in Toronto will house a whole lot of people in three 80-story condo towers. It will also include two museums and facilities for nearby OCAD University. The design is by Frank Gehry and the funding is from theatre king David Mirvish. Tweeters have compared the design to a tipped-over recycling bin, but Edward Keenan of The Grid points out that Gehry’s early sketch of the now-loved Art Gallery of Ontario once raised eyebrows too.
Continue reading What students are talking about today (October 1 edition)
Firefighters warn Fredericton students
Burning couches is dangerous and costly
Firefighters in Fredericton, N.B. want students to consider the financial costs and potential dangers of burning couches after two were found alight near the city’s universities on Friday. The end-of-year tradition among students from St. Thomas University and the University of New Brunswick is something the city has fought for years—apparently without much success. There were 19 furniture fires in 2008. Captain David McKinley told CBC News that there have been seven already this year.
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St. Thomas students lost apartments to fire
School offers money, food and shelter
Three students who were the victims of an apartment fire in Fredericton in November have received generous help from their school, St. Thomas University. All three have been offered $750 to use however they like, a meal plan worth $350 and free residence for the rest of the semester. The STU Alumni Office also gave each student a $200 Visa gift card. Even faculty chipped in, giving the students hoodies after learning that their clothing was damaged. Perhaps the best gift of all: students will get extensions on their coursework and postponed exams, reports The Daily Gleaner.
“Suspicious” fire at Brandon U
Damage up to $150,000
Police in Brandon, Man. are treating Monday’s fire at the building that houses the Brandon University Students’ Union (BUSU) as suspicious. The damage to the Knowles Douglas building is believed to be between $100,000 and $150,000. No one was injured in the blaze. A 45-day professors’ strike at Brandon ended on Friday. Students returned to class on the same day as the fire. The BUSU sided with the professors’ demands for pay raises and, unlike the university, will not refund fees to students who drop their classes as a result of the nearly seven-week strike.
Torched cars, house fires and gunshots linked to college
Staff and former students targeted
Shots have been fired and buildings and vehicles have been set ablaze in suburban Vancouver.
The incidents are believed to be related. Three of the victims are employees of the Justice Institute of British Columbia, two are former students and the other five have links to the school.
RCMP Chief Supt. Janice Armstrong told the Vancouver Sun that the attacks began in April and that in July, “an astute investigator recognized a link between seemingly unconnected criminal events occurring throughout the Lower Mainland.”
“Persons of interest” have been identified. Police are seeking more information from the public. None of the people affected is suspected by the RCMP of having connections to organized crime.
No current students are known to have been targeted and no one has been physically hurt.
JIBC trains future police officers, security officials, corrections officers, firefighters and more.
UWO bus catches fire
Volleyball players escape unharmed
A Greyhound bus carrying University of Western Ontario volleyball players caught fire Sunday night. When the driver noticed smoke coming out of the backend of the bus, he pulled over and the 35 players and coaching staff were quickly evacuated. The bus was returning to London down Highway 401 after games by both the men’s and women’s volleyball teams were played at the University of Toronto. The players escaped unharmed but the driver was taken to a hospital in Ingersoll. The students lost their jerseys, shoes, and in some cases course work, to the blaze. A second bus took the players and coaches back to the UWO campus.
Costs of deadly Wilfrid Laurier fire triple
Initially thought to be around $400,000, repairs will cost $1.2 million
Wilfrid Laurier student dies after residence blaze
First-year economics student and rugby player sustained injuries in last week’s residence fire
A 19-year-old student has died after being injured in a residence fire last week at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont.
According to university spokesman Kevin Crowley, first-year economics student and varsity rugby player David LaForest of Toronto succumbed to his injuries Sunday in the burn unit of Hamilton General Hospital.
“This is a sad and difficult time for everyone who knew David,” said Laurier dean of students David McMurray in a written statement. “Our hearts go out to his family,”
Emergency crews were notified of the fire last Tuesday at around 6 p.m., and as the fire tore through two apartments on the fourth floor, more than 300 students were evacuated.
In the aftermath of the blaze, approximately 150 students were forced out of the damaged Waterloo College Hall residence. The university says it will pay for all the moving and relocation expenses of the displaced students.
Damage to the residence has been estimated at about $800,000.
The Ontario Fire Marshal’s Office and regional police are continuing their investigation into the fire. According to the CBC, some officials suspect the blaze originated in the victim’s fourth-floor residence unit.
A memorial service for LaForest is being planned, and grief counselors will be available for any affected students.
