Local News

Victoria police communications staff were frustrated Thursday after being overloaded with a spate of abandoned 911 calls from the same cellular phone.

The search continues today for a 59-year-old woman believed to be missing in East Sooke Regional Park, with an estimated 50 volunteers from several Island communities involved. Nothing had turned up by early afternoon, said Sooke RCMP Staff Sgt.

Sounds of things falling from the roof and the thick smell of smoke prompted Kara Myrfield and two other residents to flee before their Empire Street home became engulfed in flames Friday afternoon. Myrfield said it was about 12:30 p.m.

A Greater Victoria man is dead after suffering a heart attack while driving. The man, 56, was driving at a slow speed in traffic at Tillicum and Craigflower roads, when police believe he began having a heart attack.

The sound of Christmas carols is making way for the buzzing of tree chippers as charities and other non-profit organizations accept donations to dispose of Christmas trees.

Saanich police are warning drivers to slow down on icy roads this morning. Police have received numurous complaints about road conditions, particularly on West Saanich Road, and are on scene in that area for a minor single-vehicle crash.

Vancouver Island might hold the world’s biggest maple leaves, whether or not the Guinness World Records confirms it. In November, Victoria’s Marilyn deHaan found a maple leaf in her backyard that was 60.

Victoria police are looking for witnesses to a stabbing on New Year’s Eve, as the victim refuses to identify or describe his attacker. The 19-year-old arrived at the front counter of the Salvation Army on Johnson Street about 5 p.m. Tuesday.

There were no homicides in Greater Victoria in 2013, the first time that’s happened in more than a decade.

The new year is ringing in greener in both Saanich and Oak Bay as each municipality marks milestones in garbage collection.