Calvin's Weblog

KABOOM!!!

The sound was deafening - the entire building shook, the windows rattled and as the drop ceiling shook and crackled, dust fell down apon us. "What the hell was that???" An earthquake? No, too loud, and too violent. Did a truck run into our building? Even though we've had the earthquake drill pounded into us, everyone instinctively did what they're not supposed to do... run to the windows, pull up the blinds, and look out.
It was easy to find the source - just look at all the people at the bus stop, or all the drivers that had pulled over and got out of their cars, staring awestruck up across the street. Did an airplane crash? Was it a bomb? Directly across the street from where I work, a plume of smoke was wafting up from behind the BCIT North1 building. I had to know what was going on, so I grabbed my jacket and went out front to get a better look. I wasn't alone... there's a bunch of office buildings in the area, and people were pouring out of all of them to see what this intense explosion was all about...
As soon as I could see around North1 and North2, there was no doubt about what had happened - and entire building was gone... well, not gone, just not where it used to be. Half of it, it fact, was on top of the 4 storey trades building directly behind it's former position. Windows were blown in on the adjacent campus. Something done blowed-up good! An endless line of fire trucks, police and ambulances started to arrive - and that's when I realized that this massive blast in the middle of a packed campus MUST have claimed a LOT of casualties. It was a sickening feeling to be so close to such destruction - of couse, the miracle, as we later learned, was that nobody was seriously hurt... a miracle indeed! I'm sure everyone across Canada saw the pictures on the news last night, but pictures of a missing building don't give you a clue of how intense that blast was, even a full block away, with buildings in between.

 

Here's some of the news:
The Globe and Mail
KGW News (Oregon)
National Post
CTV News
CBC News
Xinhua, China