Fatalities, fires and other breaking news stories made headlines in Chilliwack throughout 2023.
Here are just some of those top news stories that The Progress covered over the past year.
Fatal fire
Two adults died after a fire ripped through a house on Skwah First Nation in Chilliwack on March 25.
Emergency crews were called to the second-alarm fire on Landing Drive at 7:25 a.m. and when the Chilliwack Fire Department arrived on scene, they found the house fully engulfed in flames.
“Crews made an aggressive attack and entered the building to search for the missing people. Due to the condition of the building, crews were forced to evacuate and transition to a defensive mode,” according to a statement posted by Chilliwack Professional Firefighters Local 2826.
The two adults were found on the upper floor of the house.
“When we got there the whole house was on fire and two people were inside and deceased,” said a representative with Chilliwack RCMP.
READ MORE: Two adults dead following early-morning house fire on Skwah reserve in Chilliwack
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Attempted bank robbery
A man was arrested without incident and later charged following an attempted bank robbery at the CIBC branch that lasted more than an hour on April 27.
Multiple RCMP officers were called to the scene after reports came in of a man armed with a weapon at the Salish Plaza bank.
“All available police resources including front line members, the Integrated Emergency Response Team, RCMP Air Services and Police Dog Services proceeded to the area. Police worked diligently to contain the situation and resolve the situation peacefully,” said Sgt. Krista Vrolyk.
One hostage was release about 45 minutes into the incident. No one was physically injured.
Eric William Hansen, 64, was charged with one count of robbery and one count of using an imitation firearm committing an indictable offence.
Hansen is well-known to police in B.C. with a lengthy list of charges and convictions mostly from Port Coquitlam, New Westminster, Terrace, and downtown Vancouver.
He was in custody for about two and a half weeks before he was released on bail after appearing at the Chilliwack Law Courts on May 15.
READ MORE: Armed man taken into police custody after attempted bank robbery in Chilliwack
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Police standoff
A high-risk police incident which lasted 10 hours where a man allegedly fired at RCMP made headlines on May 22.
The standoff began around 2:15 p.m. that day when Chilliwack RCMP officers were called to the home on the corner of Queen Street and Knight Road to a report of a distraught man with access to several firearms.
General duty officers along with the RCMP’s Emergency Response Team were called to the scene.
At 7:45 p.m. the incident escalated when gunshots were fired at police, resulting in residents in more than a dozen neighbouring homes being told to shelter in place and stay away from exterior walls.
Negotiations and efforts to reach a peaceful resolution continued for several hours until after midnight when 29-year-old Daniel Hackl was taken into custody.
The house went up in flames around midnight and the fire was out about an hour later. There was no explanation regarding the cause of the fire.
Hackl was charged with one count of discharging a firearm with intent to wound or disfigure.
He made his first court appearance on May 24. When the hearing began, provincial judge Kristen Mundstock asked him to identify himself and he would not. When the judge asked twice if he was Daniel Hackl, his only reply was “I have no name.” He spoke no other words in court that day.
He was due to appear by video at the Chilliwack Law Courts on May 30 for a bail hearing, but when Hackl’s name was called, the court was told he was refusing to come out of his cell.
Hackl finally cooperated with the court system on Aug. 1 when he made a brief appearance at the Chilliwack Law Courts for a judicial interim review. He appeared by video from Surrey Pretrial Services Centre, where he had been for 70 days since his arrest. When Mundstock asked Hackl to identify himself on Aug. 1, he responded by saying, “They call me Daniel.”
He then appeared in-person at the Chilliwack Law Courts for a bail hearing at the end of August. Provincial judge Peter Whyte decided that the risk to the public was too great with Hackl released, and a detention order was imposed.
READ MORE: House burned to the ground, 29-year-old in custody after allegedly shooting at Chilliwack Mounties
READ MORE: 29-year-old Chilliwack man charged after allegedly shooting at police in protracted standoff Monday
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Head-on collision
A four-vehicle crash on the Agassiz-Rosedale Bridge where a man was seen fleeing the scene carrying a chainsaw halted traffic for hours on July 8.
The incident happened around 12:50 p.m. at the north end of the bridge where a northbound car collided head-on with a southbound semi truck. The car went on to hit two other southbound vehicles.
Sukh Mattu, the driver of the blue Peterbilt semi, said the driver of the Chrysler 300 that struck him locked eyes with him until their vehicles collided.
The Chrysler 300 veered into his lane, then it was fully in his lane.
“He looked right at me, staring right at me the whole time,” Mattu said.
The Chrysler smashed head-on into the driver’s side of the semi, then ricocheted off the sidewalk on the east side of the bridge. It then hit a blue Dodge van directly behind Mattu’s truck and then crashed into a black Audi that was behind the van.
The driver of the Chrysler was aggressive when he got out of the car. He went to the trunk, pulled out a chainsaw and fled on foot towards Agassiz.
“He ended up throwing his chainsaw over the bridge,” Mattu said.
Miraculously, no one was seriously injured and no one was taken to hospital.
The suspected driver of the Chrysler is well-known to police, and he was not the registered owner of the vehicle, said Cpl. Carmen Kiener with Upper Fraser Valley Regional Detachment RCMP.
Three days after the crash, RCMP said the suspect was not caught by police and was still outstanding.
READ MORE: ‘He looked right at me’: Man still at large after crash on Agassiz-Rosedale Bridge
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Church demolished by fire
A 75-year-old church in Chilliwack was completely destroyed by fire on Labour Day (Sept. 4).
The blaze happened around 2:50 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 4 at Cross Connection Church on Williams Street at the corner of Princess Avenue.
An army of 54 firefighters from Chilliwack Fire Department Halls 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 responded and when the first crews arrived, smoke was venting from the attic of the large, wood-framed church.
The blaze proved difficult to fight.
Firefighters initially entered the building to see if they could find where the fire started, but were faced with heat and heavy smoke.
“Due to the rapidly deteriorating conditions inside the building, all firefighters were pulled back,” said assistant fire chief Chris Wilson.
One witness recalled seeing flames get extinguished only to flare up again several times in different areas of the roof.
“Fire crews worked tirelessly for several hours and were challenged with a large wood-framed building, heavy volumes of smoke and fire and several structural collapses,” Wilson said.
Despite the severity of the fire, several important documents and items were saved and returned to members of the church who were at the scene of the fire.
READ MORE: Chilliwack church goes up in flames on Labour Day
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Three dead in plane crash
Three people died when a plane crash landed in blackberry bushes near the Chilliwack Airport on Oct. 6.
It happened shortly after 2 p.m. behind the Chilliwack Motor Inn.
Witnesses grabbed ladders and mattresses to lay on top of the brambles in order to access the plane. But it was too late. All three people onboard died.
Two of the three were later identified as trainee pilots Abhay Gadru and Yash Ramugade, both 25 years old, from Mumbai, India.
Both were in Canada for pilot training. Gadru was from Vasai, Mumbai and Ramugade was from Santacruz, Mumbai.
The plane they were in was a Piper PA34, which was registered to Langley flight school SkyQuest Aviation Ltd.
READ MORE: Three dead in plane crash near Chilliwack Airport
