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Trailer explosion a ‘planned detonation,’ says RCMP

Explosives were used to blow a trailer to smithereens on a popular Roberts Creek logging road last December and a possible suspect has been identified.
Trailer
The debris field from a trailer that exploded on up B&K Road Dec. 28.

Explosives were used to blow a trailer to smithereens on a popular Roberts Creek logging road last December and a possible suspect has been identified.

“Our explosive disposal unit from the RCMP came over and they examined the debris field and the person or persons responsible used an awful lot of Tannerite,” said Sunshine Coast RCMP Staff Sgt. Poppy Hallam at the Jan. 16 Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) policing committee meeting.

Tannerite is a brand name for an explosive target often used in long-range firearm practice, and is legally sold in Canada.

“It was a planned detonation – it wasn’t an accident,” said Hallam. No charges have been laid and a motive has not been disclosed. Nobody was harmed in the incident.

The RCMP had initially reported that an exploded butane can was found at the debris site. Given the size of the explosion, which was audible kilometres away, the RCMP’s explosives unit became “very interested in it.”

Roberts Creek director Andreas Tize brought up the explosion during his report to the policing committee, telling directors he was glad the blast occurred during winter, “and not in August, when that fireball could have lit the whole forest on fire.”

He then mentioned “homeless people and people living up in the woods without proper adherence to fire safety,” but was cut off by Hallam, who told directors, “That is not what that was… That was an explosion purposely detonated using Tannerite.”

Hallam said whoever was involved would have shot at the trailer using a firearm from a long distance since “they would have been killed if they had detonated that anywhere near that trailer.”

“We’re not trying to alarm anybody, but we’re taking it quite seriously given that people are living up the B&K. We don’t like that at all,” she said.