SURREY - Stabbings, a pedestrian hit-and-run and a spectacular lumber mill fire in Bridgeview kept Surrey Mounties and firefighters busy this past weekend.
Police are looking for a man who stabbed two employees at Wings Tap and Grill in Newton on Sunday afternoon.
"We have most of our major crimes section dedicated to getting this guy," Surrey RCMP Cpl. Bert Paquet said.
One man was stabbed in the shoulder and hand, and the other in his torso.
"The location was targeted, not the individuals," Paquet said. "We believe he was trying to steal something from the employees area."
The employees confronted the would-be thief at the back of the restaurant, which was open. He then grabbed a kitchen knife and attacked them.
Police are looking for a man in his 40s with white or olive skin, about five feet 10 and of large build. He was wearing a black jacket at the time.
Earlier Saturday, at about 1 a.m., police found two men with stab wounds at a house party near 100th Avenue and 132A Street. Staff Sgt. Murray Hedderson said the Mounties were responding to a complaint that two groups were fighting inside a house.
One man sustained cuts to his upper body and head. "A second male was later located at a hospital, also suffering from laceration wounds," Hedderson said.
"The victims and some witnesses were questioned, but were not forthcoming with a lot of details on the incident. None of them supplied an identity on the suspect, although it appears that the parties involved may know each other."
Meantime, police are still looking for the driver of a black Honda Accord that struck down a Surrey man standing in the road in the 13400-block of 83A Avenue on Halloween night. Hedderson said the driver didn't stop and was last seen heading west on 83A Avenue towards 134th Street,
Police figure the car has a busted windshield. An ambulance took the victim, in his late 20s, to hospital. He has since been released.
Surrey firefighters were busy when a three-alarm fire broke out at Bridgeview's MacKenzie sawmill just after 1 a.m. Saturday. (Photo: SHANE MACKICHAN)
Surrey firefighters were busy when a three-alarm fire broke out at Bridgeview's MacKenzie sawmill just after 1 a.m. Saturday. Deputy Fire Chief Dan Barnscher said 29 firefighters arrived in nine trucks to battle the blaze but no one was injured. No workers were on site, he said. Roughly 30 per cent of the mill was damaged.
Investigators are looking for the cause but Barnscher said it's "definitely not suspicious."
The sawmill has caught fire several times over the years. The last one, in 2011, was no less devastating. That one left 120 workers with no job to go back to.
And two months before that fire, sparks from a welder's torch started a fire in a chip truck full of sawdust there.
Halloween night itself was busy for police, with the Surrey RCMP responding to more than 550 calls for service - a 25 per cent increase compared to Halloween last year.
"One-third of these calls were fireworks related," Paquet said. "Almost 200 bylaw files were created and dispatched for fireworks and thousands of fireworks were seized by officers."