Country Inn Motel in Nimpo Lake burned to the ground

I am sad to report another loss to fire in the Chilcotin:

Yesterday, the Country Inn Motel in Nimpo Lake burned to the ground. Fortunately there were no casualties. Apparently the manager of the motel was able to alert all the guests in time to move themselves and their vehicles to a safe place. The owners, had moved to the Inn only a month ago, and lost everything. This is what the site looked like after the fire:

If you have more to add to this information - words or pictures - I'd be happy to post them here. E-mail. You can also add a comment by clicking on Comments at the foot of this post.

Close to the Nimpo Lake float plane base, the Inn was an important part of the local tourist scene and was recommended by such operations as The Nuk Tessli Alpine Experience.

Another decrease in medical service for small-town BC

Fewer Doctor Visits Approved for Rural, Isolated Towns

By Ethan Ribalkin
Published: September 27, 2006
TheTyee.ca

A lot of small towns in B.C. rely on the care of visiting family doctors and specialists. It's the only alternative to flying or busing people miles to medical centres. But this year the B.C. government has lowered the number of approved doctor visits to rural and isolated communities, according to a Health Ministry report obtained by The Tyee.

Read the article

Pictures of the Farwell Canyon bridge fire

[updated 8:20 pm PST]

Thanks to Dan Laurie, we have some dramatic pictures of the fire that took down the bridge. (Click on image to see a larger version.)

The loss of the bridge will affect many people, not least those involved in area logging. Radio 94X in Prince George reports:

Roy Halls, a local trucker says drivers will now only be able to make one trip a day carrying logs to williams lake from a large section of the South Chilcotin. He says the added trucking distance will increase costs for mills, while drivers will lose out on the additional work from when they hauled two loads a day. Halls says logging was supposed to continue in the affected area this winter, but those plans now need to be re-considered.

More on the Farwell Canyon Bridge fire

Thanks to Kate for alerting me to this report in the Williams Lake Tribune. Pretty dramatic picture and story too.

It appears that there is a connection between the cause of the fire and the mudslide of two years ago: on Sunday night someone started a fire underneath the bridge, using brush that accumulated during the flooding caused by the slide. This quickly got the bridge support posts burning. In this picture, you can see how in 2004 the debris was lifted around the bridge by the rising water:

Dan, from Fort Nelson, has "some stunning shots of Farwell Bridge as it was burning", which I'm hoping to get soon.

Farwell Canyon Bridge burnt down

Photo: Chris Harris

Photo: Stanton Newman

I hear the Farwell Canyon bridge burnt down on Saturday night. Police and fire services were there through the night. Apparently there is a long way round alternate route.

Anyone out there know more about this and/or have pictures?

(If you're interested, I have pictures of the flood that occurred there in 2004)

A very big baby cowbird

This year brought a lot of heat and an unprecedented hailstorm to my Cariboo backyard. The hail stripped the bushes and trees of a lot of their (protective for the birds) foliage. Perhaps the most unusual happening was the pairing in this picture on the left. The bigger bird followed the Junco around for days, treating it like a parent. I didn't see it again after the hailstorm. The mystery: what is the "baby" bird?

And . . . I got the answer - from Tom Godin: "The large bird in the picture is a fully fledged cowbird that was no doubt raised by the junco that it was begging food from. Juvenile and female cowbirds look quite similar."

Visit Backyard Birds - 57 BC Interior birds