Downtown residents and patrons were stunned Tuesday afternoon when an explosive sound echoed down Cleveland Avenue.The drama began around 11:30 a.m. on Sept. 11 when a resident entered the Downtown RCMP Community Policing Office to report a suspicious item in a passageway between two stores on the downtown's main street.
RCMP attended the scene and spotted a bottle wrapped in black electrical tape and containing what appeared to be wrapping paper for firecrackers.
"As a result of the suspicion that maybe it could be explosives [RCMP] called the Explosives Disposal Unit from Surrey," said Cpl. Jennifer Foulon of the downtown policing station.
While the unit flew to Squamish to assist, word quickly spread throughout the neighbourhood's shops that a "bomb" was sitting in a narrow passageway between two buildings on the north side of Cleveland Avenue between Winnipeg and Victoria streets.
Just after 1 p.m., a lone RCMP member was posted on Cleveland Avenue between Burneing Images and the Mini Flea Market, and police tape blocked pedestrians from entering the passageway.
Almost two hours later, between 2:45 and 3 p.m., a loud explosion echoed through the streets.
"It was quite a loud explosion," said Louise Prevost who was at the corner of Winnipeg Street and Cleveland Avenue when the detonation occurred.
"People were coming out of the restaurant and shops."
The noise came from normal procedures undertaken by the explosives unit, said Foulon.
"The loud boom that would've been heard was just normal procedures when they come up," she said. "They disrupted the package and rendered it safe. In doing that there is sometimes a loud noise that may have sounded like a shotgun."Prevost said she briefly spotted one RCMP member on Cleveland Avenue after the noise.
And despite the presence of numerous traffic control persons (TCP) at the corner of Winnipeg and Cleveland - most of whom were taking part in a TCP course - no one was in place to direct traffic away from the street. Foulon said the unit members had undertaken other procedures, such as dousing the package with water, before determining it was safe.
The fact that it was the sixth anniversary of 9/11 didn't escape those at the policing station, said Foulon, but it didn't determine their safety precautions.
"Of course we knew the date, but I don't know whether there was any connection to that during our investigation," she said. "But whether it was 9/11 or 9/10 we would've dealt with it the same way."
