Port Moody police are blaming poorly stored industrial fuels for a blast that tore the roof off a van and sent a woman to hospital last Friday afternoon.
The incident occurred shortly before 2 p.m. at the McDonalds on St. Johns Street - next to the police station - and the blast could be felt blocks away.
Firefighters cordoned off the area and several residents were asked to evacuate their homes while the incident was investigated. Police later described the explosion as an "industrial accident" due to the "unsafe storage of fuel."
Ellecia Hobbis, who works nearby, told The Tri-City News she heard a bang and thought a delivery truck had crashed into a store awning.
"Then we saw people running from the car with its roof blown off and into the McDonalds," she said. "We saw a white, sort of, painter van with the roof blown off and curled over and flames coming from it. There was lots of smoke."
Darryl McDougall, who owns the McDonalds restaurant, said none of his employees were injured in the explosion. Police interviewed several of the workers in an effort to determine how long the vehicle had been parked in the lot.
McDougall added that he had provided police with surveillance footage of the lot.
"We have good video systems and whenever the police need them, we provide them," Mcdougall said.
St. Johns was closed for several hours after the blast, snarling traffic all the way to Barnet Highway.
