Nina Jakobsen was up for much of Saturday night (Nov. 20) caring for her sick toddler, and she was just getting ready for bed herself when she heard a loud boom outside.
"At first I thought it was a gunshot," the Skyline Drive resident said on Monday (Nov. 22). "The whole house shook."
What Jakobson and other area residents heard, though, was no gunshot though undoubtedly that would have been frightening enough for area residents. It was an improvised explosive device that detonated on Saturday sometime after 10 p.m., destroying a 1998 Jeep Cherokee that was parked outside a home halfway up a steep Skyline Drive hill from Jakobsen's home.
No one was hurt in the blast, which was reported to police at 11:39 p.m., RCMP Corp. Dave Ritchie said in a statement issued on Sunday (Nov. 21). Police believe the vehicle's owner, whom Ritchie said "is known to police," was the intended target of the device that destroyed the vehicle, Ritchie said.
After police arrived at the scene, those inside the home where the explosion occurred and another nearby home were evacuated while police waited for the RCMP Explosive Disposal and Forensic Identification units to arrive to help with the investigation. No other explosive devices were found, Ritchie said.
Jakobsen, who said she was out of bed "off and on" caring for her sick toddler during the night, said she saw the police cars arrive on the street. They eventually erected roadblocks a few doors away from her home, where Skyline runs into Garibaldi Way, and at the intersection of Skyline and Braemar Drive.
But Jakobsen only learned about the explosion when she heard about it on the news the next day. Until then, she still thought she had heard a gunshot.
"It bothers me," she said of the danger posed by such an incident. "My husband is usually here, but he wasn't that night, so it definitely made me check the doors."
Several people who live in the area around the blast site said they did not hear it, and those who did hear it said they were surprised to learn later that it was an explosion that destroyed an SUV.
"I was up at the time and heard a muffled boom," said one man whose home is a few doors from the blast site. The man spoke on the condition that he not be identified, "because of the nature of what it (the incident) seems to be."
After hearing the boom, the man said, "It was a sound that made me curious, but not concerned. I came out and stood on my balcony here and looked for three or four minutes. If it had sounded like it was closer, I would have investigated further."
Like Jakobsen, the man said he was surprised to learn on Sunday what had happened.
"Lots of people are out working in their sheds and stuff at strange hours of the night. For all I heard, it (the blast) could have been a car backfiring," he said.
"It's a bit of a concern that something like that is going on around here, but at the same time, there's a lot of great people around here. We wouldn't live anywhere else."
He added, "I guess because the guy was known to police, that makes me less concerned."
Louise Dewar lives on Kintyre Drive, about four blocks from the blast. Dewar said no one in her household heard the blast. However, at about 10:20 p.m., Dewar's 12-year-old daughter Megan saw a bright light that frightened the youngster.
"The whole sky lit up," said Dewar, production manager at the Chief. "I just thought a transformer had blown up."
Ronan Deane, who lives with his wife Jen and their infant on lower Skyline Drive, said he was watching TV when the blast occurred but heard nothing.
"I was up at about 3 (a.m.) when I first heard the cop cars. I thought maybe it was a check stop," Deane said.
The barricades that were erected around the scene of the blast late Saturday were down by Sunday at midday, and by Monday, it was difficult for someone walking along the street to tell where the blast had occurred.
Police are asking for the public's help with the investigation. If you have information, please phone the Squamish RCMP detachment at (604) 892-6100 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477. Those who wish to remain anonymous while providing information will have their names kept confidential; Crime Stoppers provides rewards of up to $2,000 for information that leads to an arrest and charge.
