Image: Submitted / A burned trailer in the Chilliwack River Valley is shown, just the latest environmental eyesore in the Chilliwack Lake Road corridor. This trailer is located just west of Thurston Meadows on a former correctional centre, north of Chilliwack Lake Road, near the Cedar Run fishing spot. 

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Abandoned trailer burns

Abandoned trailer burns in the Chilliwack River Valley

Jan 24, 2024 | 11:44 AM

CHILLIWACK — Another environmental eyesore has surfaced in the once pristine Chilliwack River Valley, but government inaction on multiple levels has invariably created scenarios like this one.

Ross Aikenhead, a Chilliwack cleanup volunteer who frequently documents the location and contents of abandoned and inhabited Chilliwack homeless camps, sent pictures to Fraser Valley Today of an abandoned trailer that burned sometime this past week.

The burned trailer is located on the north side of Chilliwack Lake Road on the grounds of the former Mount Thurston Correctional Centre, just west of the Thurston Meadows campground. The trailer had been abandoned for roughly a month, Aikenhead said.

Image: Submitted / Another angle of the burned trailer east of Thurston Meadows in the Chilliwack River Valley.

It is believed that Chilliwack River Valley Fire Department responded to the apparent fire in its catchment area between Monday night, Jan. 22 and the morning of Tuesday, Jan. 23.

Fire in Squamish

Evacuation alert issued for some homes in Squamish due to nearby Dryden Creek fire

15m ago

Commercial safety enforcement

Abbotsford PD, CVSE conduct trucking enforcement blitz, issue over 100 violations

42m ago

City of Mission

City of Mission, area First Nations to mark historic return of 60 hectares of land to local bands

2h ago

Aikenhead said the abandoned camp could be added to the ongoing efforts to clean up uninhabited encampments, many of whom have turned into ugly eyesores throughout the Chilliwack River Valley. A private contractor with F.H. Forestry Ltd., Wayne Furness, and Tom Blackbird with the Ministry of Environment have been notified about this latest abandoned trailer.

There had been a Ram pickup truck parked next to the trailer for some time. Its BC license plate was photographed as SL 7259, though it’s not known if police have been notified about the presumed owner of the trailer, or the pickup owner’s connection to the trailer.

In the past month, three homeless camps have been eradicated and dismantled, including one almost across from Thurston Meadows, a relatively small one southeast of Riverside campground, and a royal mess just off New Borden Forest Service Road.