The explosion of two apparently homemade bombs early on Sunday morning have local officials concerned for the safety of their maker — possibly a youngster — and the public.
Emergency responders to a 3 a.m. 911 call for what residents in the 1200 block of Birch Street thought was a car fire. Instead, they found remnants of a crude bomb on the front lawn of a residence. A second explosion occurred in the 400 block of Ninth Avenue North.
“This kind of device could easily seriously injure or end a life if you are within close proximity of it going off.” Creston Fire Rescue deputy fire chief Michael Moore said on Monday. “It is very fortunate that this device did not end up next to the home causing a structure fire or worse injuring someone. I don’t think that the person who built this realizes the incredible damage that this could have caused to someone, including themselves.”
RCMP staff sergeant Gord Stewart echoed Moore’s concerns.
“This sort of device can cause tremendous damage and possible fatalities, and we are asking anyone with knowledge of who built or set off the device to call the RCMP (250-428-9313) or Crime Stoppers (1-800-222-8477).”
Aerosol cans have been identified as the explosive instruments in the bombs.
Moore said information about how to build explosive device and videos of “stunts” involving their use is easily accessed on the Internet. While the videos are often watched for their humorous results, he said their use is hardly amusing.
“Not funny at all,” he said. “This device could potentially carry shrapnel at the speed of a bullet a few hundred feet. I don’t see any humour in this at all. I wonder how funny it would be if the person doing this had hurt someone and faced serious criminal charges.
“Also, this places responders at serious risk as sometimes these devices don’t completely go off at once and possibly exploding with the arrival of emergency responders.”
Also troubling has been a string of suspicious fires caused in Creston in the past month, starting with two small grass and brush fires, Moore said.
“These fires were in areas well known to have youth hanging out or walking through,” he said. “From all appearances, these have the makings of deliberately set fires. Then last weekend the small tool shed at the bike park goes up in flames and there is no other possible cause of the fire related to this structure except intentionally set.
“As we head into summer where everything dries out, the individuals responsible for these fires may spark off something much larger than a small humorous prank. A devastating forest fire impacting the entire community isn’t out of the realm of possibility.”
Mayor Ron Toyota was reached in Halifax, where he is among 2,000 local government officials attending the annual Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference.
“We ask that people keep a vigilant watch out for suspicious activities,” he said. “Thankfully no one was hurt and there is minimal property damage, but certainly these kinds of events could lead to something much worse.”