Hicks wins American Idol /14

Oilers get brooms ready /9
THURSDAY, MAY 25, 2006

Children's festival opens /13

Underwood a hit at country music awards /16

80 CENTS (HOME DELIVERED: 59 CENTS A DAY)

Duo escapes river accident
by FRANK PEEBLES Citizen staff Two Prince George teenagers survived a night in the wilderness after their canoe was sucked under a log jam on the Salmon River. Search and Rescue personnel found t hem Wednesday mor ning cold, banged up, but otherwise OK. "They were found at about 7 a.m.," said RCMP spokesperson Const. Gary Godwin. "There was a minor injury involved to one of them. They spent the night, but they bivouacked properly, left signs that could be seen from the river, they did everything right." Search manager Jeff Smedley concurred that the young men were their own best assets in the tight spot they found themselves. "These guys had some canoeing experience, they had some bush experience, they used their heads, and they really helped us out a lot with the things they did. Pretty smart individuals," Smedley said. According to Smedley, the teens, aged 17 and 19, began an ambitious one-day canoe adventure at the 600 Forest Service Road attempting to paddle the 71 kilometres to the Salmon River Bridge by nightfall. At 7:30 p.m., the duo called their parents to let them know they were about an hour away from achieving their goal, but Smedley said they did not know they were about to encounter a log jam that completely spanned the river. The racing water sucked their canoe under the snarl of debris, but they managed to escape with some gear. Wet, and one youth suffering from a hand injury, they made their way to shore and left their life jackets and paddles as a sign they got out of the water there. They bushwhacked downstream a few kilometres before darkness forced them to stop. Their gear was so wet they couldn't get a fire going, so they built a shelter as best they could and tried to get some sleep. "RCMP called us out to look at about midnight," Smedley said. "We had eight personnel on the ground and one plane to try to spot fire. At first light I had eight more searchers on the ground and an Aberdeen Helicopters chopper. The first pass with the helicopter revealed their lifejackets, so we dropped off a pair of searchers, and as they went back for more searchers the boys stepped out of the bush onto the shore and made themselves seen so we were able to help them out right away by helicopter." Smedley said their skills were commendable to be able to get as far as they did through dense underbrush, and to have left signs indicating where they were. "They were in good spirits," Smedley said. "The one fellow went to hospital for his hand, but the other fellow was going to go home, have a shower and go to work." Pr ince George SAR and RCMP praised the aircraft resources that joined the search, and a pair of jet boats that had just put into the water when the pair was discovered. No names were released.

Citizen photo by Dave Milne

A Prince George firefighter pours water Wednesday over the remains of a shed behind a home on Riverdale Road. A 19-year-old man was injured in the explosion that caused the fire.

Explosion injures man
by FRANK PEEBLES Citizen staff Local firefighters are amazed a 19-year-old man wasn't killed when the shed he was working in exploded into flames Wednesday morning. "The kid is lucky to be alive, actually," said Prince George deputy fire chief Dale Kronebusch. "He was working on a sound system or a stereo, something sparked and he heard this whammo. He has second and third degree burns on his hands and face. I expect he will be sent to Vancouver hospital, if he hasn't already." The youth's name has not been released. He was in a shed on his family's property at 3573 Riverdale Road, just off North Nechako Road on the west side of Foothills Boulevard. Firefighters found four propane cylinders inside the shed, but Kronebusch said the initial evidence is not consistent with what they term a BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapour Explosion). "A BLEVE is every firefighter's worst fear," he said. "There was no evidence there that told us that is likely what happened, but we still have a lot of investigating to do. All the cylinders were intact, and usually in that kind of an explosion the cans go for a real ride, but maybe there was a can there we haven't located yet." Kronebusch said the entire shed was burned. The youth is not expected to be able to communicate until he heals enough to speak, "which could be weeks."

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Effort hopes to bolster sturgeon population
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff Critical steps to help the recovery of the endangered Nechako white sturgeon were taken Thursday morning as a team of specialists helped fertilize eggs that are hoped to deliver a new generation. The fertilization took place in water tanks alongside the Nechako River, normally used to hold fish for stocking lakes in the area. The fertilized eggs will be transported to Vanderhoof, where they will be incubated and hatched. In the fall, 5,000 juvenile sturgeon are planned to be released into the Nechako River. Backed by the Nechako White Sturgeon Recovery Initiative, it's the first effort of its kind to bolster the sturgeon population on the Nechako River. The recovery initiative -- which includes participation from local, provincial and federal governments, as well as First Nations and Alcan -- has a two-pronged approach. The first is to help build up the young sturgeon population with fish hatched in captivity, an effort that could take 40 to 50 years, said Cory Williamson, a B.C. environment fisheries biologist, who is chair of the sturgeon recovery team. The group is also trying to discover why the young population of the sturgeon has fallen off. If they can rectify those problems, eventually the hatchery program will not be needed, said Williamson.

Drunken hooligans terrorized campers
by FRANK PEEBLES Citizen staff A Prince George family says they feared for their safety as they fled a drunken mob at Chubb Lake forestry campsite this past weekend. It was the same site where a Prince George teen was run over as she slept in her tent at the party by someone RCMP said was pulling a prank. "We spent a night of terror because of those partiers," said Dora Carlson. "They were threatening to kill us as we were leaving. When we moved up to Chubb Lake Bible Camp for our own safety, they were running after us, throwing things, threatening us, one of our friends had to gun her engine at them to get them to move, just so we could get away. "Then they followed us up there to terrorize us some more. That first night, I didn't sleep, I was sitting there with bear spray in case they attacked us." RCMP said the 18-year-old Prince George female who was struck by the vehicle while in her tent sustained serious but non-life-threatening injuries and was discharged from hospital Saturday. No name was given for the suspect, a 19-year-old from Edmonton, who is scheduled to appear in court in Quesnel on July 11. Carlson said she and her husband Guy Chouinard bring their two small children to Chubb Lake almost every weekend in the summer. Two other families joined them for the long weekend. "What was worst for me was when I saw my seven-year-old daughter race past me and then this young guy went racing past right after her, and she slid down a steep bank into the lake, screaming, and he shouted at her `I'm going to cut your (expletive) head off, you little (expletive)' and then he took off around the long way so I couldn't get at him," Carlson said. She managed to obtain a licence plate number of the youth's vehicle and gave it to police. -- See CAMPSITE on page 3

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INDEX
Annie's Mailbox . . . . . . . . . 16 Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Business . . . . . . . . . . . .22-24 City, B.C. . . . . . . . . . . 3,5,6,13 Classifi ed . . . . . . . . . . . 18-21 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . 16 Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6,7 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-12 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14,15

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Thousands of eggs were harvested from a female sturgeon by, from left, Mike Keehn of the Freshwater Fisheries Society of B.C., Ryan Liebe of Triton Environmental, Ron Ek of the Freshwater Fisheries Society of B.C., and Brian Toth, a consultant with the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council. Williamson explained that the two females and four males being used for the breeding program were captured earlier in May in the Nechako River near Vanderhoof. The eggs -- cross fertilized by the four males -- will help ensure genetic diversity. Sturgeon live a long time, and one of the females was between 80 to 90 years old. At 109 kilograms, she is twice the size of her male counterparts. -- See SPECIES on page 3

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