I guess they are saying it for sure wasn't drugs or a bomb... my guess is gas leak, one of the firefighters interviewed said in 30 years on the job he has never seen anything like it except years ago a gas explosion.
Sad, 4 people died, but some heroics on display that day. Strange that the best coverage (most photos, anyway) for this local tragedy is in the Vancouver Sun...
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Edmonton+house+explosion+drug+bomb+Police/3181213/story.html
I was about to say you are late posting on it as it was big in the news here today.
Quote from: Lazybones on June 22, 2010, 01:20:13 AM
I was about to say you are late posting on it as it was big in the news here today.
I was wrong, the VC is apparently a sister paper of the EJ since identical interface, tabs etc.
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Explosion+rocks+north+Edmonton+neighbourhood/3178983/story.html
And yeah it happened on the weekend but it's so "wow" that it doesn't really sink in until you have a day or 2 to think about "what if it happened in your neighborhood", etc. I realized tonight the address is kinda close to where Dionne lives now, within 30 blocks so they might have heard it if they were outside... So I spent some time looking at the photos and Google Maps, not sure why, it's not morbid curiosity, it's a horrible tragedy and I can't imagine what the families are going through.
I dunno, gas would blow off real quick.
My theory? Maybe some ordinance was accidentally dropped outbound from Namao (CFB Edmonton) or Blatchford Field, take a look where the house is and compare it to the airports in Google maps.
Late yesterday the police have publicly declared there was no evidence of drug-related or explosives-related material. Plus the fiancee of one of the victims said she heard her guy say he smelled gas, just before the explosion.
Also the house blew outward, and a few of the eyewitnesses to the scene (including emergency services folks) said it looked like other gas explosions they have seen, including one in the 1980s in the Hollyrood area.
Certaintly not impossible to have been intentional, i.e. motive might have been suicide or homicide, but evidence points almost definitely to a "from within" gas explosion.
Interesting! I would have thought that for an explosion that size there'd have to be a BIG buildup first.
Quote from: Mr. Analog on June 22, 2010, 09:53:00 AM
Interesting! I would have thought that for an explosion that size there'd have to be a BIG buildup first.
Might have been related to the warm weather, inside a house you don't need heat, and if the pilot light goes out and nobody knows, and there's a faulty cutoff valve or older equipment, that might be all it took. :(
perhaps what happened in this home will be considered minor, compared to what might eventually happen (http://www.theamericannightmare.org/170-x_THE_GREAT_ABYSS.html) :o <-- not really seriously thinking that's plausible, however what about the BP spill? (http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/06/bp-admits-that-if-it-tries-to-cap-leak.html)
Quote from: Darren Dirt on June 22, 2010, 12:51:00 PM
perhaps what happened in this home will be considered minor, compared to what might eventually happen (http://www.theamericannightmare.org/170-x_THE_GREAT_ABYSS.html) :o
All I have to say is if they think their examples of Yahoo and Google moving to China (not to mention the rest of the examples they gave of companies moving) have anything to do with this issue, I don't have much hope for the rest of the article.
Quote from: Darren Dirt on June 22, 2010, 12:51:00 PM
what about the BP spill? (http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/06/bp-admits-that-if-it-tries-to-cap-leak.html)
This feels like a promo for a disaster film, "We Were Warned." (re. the methane gas pocket that might instantly kill millions, not joking, wow)
http://www.helium.com/items/1864136-how-the-ultimate-bp-gulf-disaster-could-kill-millions
Quote from: Tom on June 22, 2010, 01:04:14 PM
All I have to say is if they think their examples of Yahoo and Google moving to China (not to mention the rest of the examples they gave of companies moving) have anything to do with this issue, I don't have much hope for the rest of the article.
It's a ridiculous article on a religious-fearmongering* website, so easily dismiss (though fascinating, like a disaster movie [its trailer, anyway]). But the mention of the underlying layer of natural gas is what got my attention, and though I made light of it (see above) I now wonder... the "helium.com" article makes me wonder just how easily we can dismiss that catastrophic possiblity...
*and if you REALLY want to go crazy with fearmongering, there's always Steve Quayle (http://www.stevequayle.com/News.alert/10_Cosmic/10_Cosmic.index.html) ::)
Quote from: Darren Dirt on June 22, 2010, 12:51:00 PM
perhaps what happened in this home will be considered minor, compared to what might eventually happen (http://www.theamericannightmare.org/170-x_THE_GREAT_ABYSS.html) :o <-- not really seriously thinking that's plausible, however what about the BP spill? (http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/06/bp-admits-that-if-it-tries-to-cap-leak.html)
Okay, if you think it's not plausible, then why post it? As far as that poorly-structured article goes, it's clearly FUD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt). The author didn't even get the description of the oil fields right. The Hugoton-Panhandle reserve exists in northern Texas, a sliver of Oklahoma, and southwest Kansas:
(http://www.searchanddiscovery.net/documents/2003/sorenson/images/105.jpg)
(source: http://www.searchanddiscovery.net/documents/2003/sorenson/index.htm). It clearly does not cover all of Canada, the US, Mexico, and the gulf of Mexico.
Back to the North Edmonton home explosion, who's to say that the gas wasn't building up in a closed off basement for hours? Interesting that homicide detectives have been brought in now.
Quote from: Thorin on June 22, 2010, 02:00:09 PM
Back to the North Edmonton home explosion, who's to say that the gas wasn't building up in a closed off basement for hours? Interesting that homicide detectives have been brought in now.
from what i hear, they bring in Homicide when a cause of death is considered "unsolved" ... with 4 victims they are apparently still trying to identify the actual cause of death for 1 or more of them. Doesn't mean they suspect foul play or intentionality. Doesn't mean they don't though...
How about gas leak + meth lab??
I still like my theory of a UXB from the 50s or something...
Quote from: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Stormy+relationship+centre+Edmonton+house+blast/3197651/story.html
The lives of Cathie Heard and Dwayne Poirier lie scattered on their front lawn -- burnt photographs, broken records and splintered wood.
A singed book -- The Verbally Abusive Man, Can He Change? A woman's guide to deciding whether to stay or go -- lies in the ruins.
The book hints at the stormy, litigious and sometimes violent relationship that endured for three years before the massive explosion Sunday in north Edmonton.
On Thursday, police confirmed Heard, 47, and her neighbours, 29-year-old Craig Huber and Bradley Winter, 26, were homicide victims.
Poirier's death has been ruled noncriminal, a designation that includes suicide. He was 46.
Read the rest of the article for more information. There are unconfirmed reports that Cathie Heard's body was found bound and wrapped up in the basement. There are also several emergency protection orders between the two of them, some from the woman against the man, some from the man against the woman, which allege all kinds of abuse and death threats both ways.
This is starting to look like a giant murder-suicide.
Quote from: Thorin on June 25, 2010, 02:02:51 PM
This is starting to look like a giant murder-suicide.
@%&#. Stupid emotionally unstable asshole.
Sad, why can't people just move on from relationships that don't work out, instead of making life for their estranged ex a living hell... or worse.
Sorry, just sick of abusive idiots causing grief, especially when innocent secondary victims are impacted... In this case 2 neighbours, Brad Winter and Craig Huber, but also how many other homes/lives got damaged or destroyed by this nut? :(
Quote
He testified they were breaking up and that she had threatened to kill him. He asked for an emergency protection order to keep her away.
"She didn't have (a gun) present, but she said she was gonna blow my brains out," he testified under oath. "(She) said, 'You better f---in' sleep with one eye open because I'm going to blow your brains out.' "
Poirier had prior experience with domestic trouble. After he separated from his wife in 1994, she charged him with assault and uttering death threats. He denied the allegations and the charges were ultimately withdrawn.
I normally don't "presume" the man is the only one a violent threat to the woman, as it is sometimes the other way around, or at least semi-mutual. But sounds like the way he handled the breakup with his previous wife = sign of a troubled boy that never grew up -- therapy mighta prevented a handful of deaths, dammit.
Umm, read the article and follow through on what emergency protection orders were asked for, when, and by whom. To me, it sounds like she might've been the aggressive one, especially early on in the relationship. And it sounds like ultimately it came down to power - who had the power to take the house away from whom.
Yesterday I saw on 630CHED that they are confirming 3 homicides and 1 undecided. Kinda laughed at the last part...
Three homicides and one "noncriminal":
Quote from: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Stormy+relationship+centre+Edmonton+house+blast/3197651/story.html#ixzz0ruLwp7YM
Poirier's death has been ruled noncriminal, a designation that includes suicide. He was 46.
See that is a different statement than what they stated on the 630CHED feed. And that is what I think they meant, but still chuckled when they said undecided.
This has to be the most explosive way of committing murder within city limits ever.