Life for B.C.’s bomb squad is nothing like the movies – and this is a good thing
What could have been a tragedy played out in Kelowna last month, when a resident reported finding what looked like a bomb to Kelowna RCMP.
They closed Harvey Avenue, the main thoroughfare through the city, between Spall Road and Cooper Road, and called in the RCMP’s Explosive Disposal Unit – the province’s bomb squad. It travelled from its Lower Mainland base to Kelowna and deactivated the bomb – which the RCMP described as a “live explosive device” – without setting off an explosion.
Most of what we think we know about bomb squads comes from the movies. In the 2008 Hollywood film The Hurt Locker, actor Jeremy Renner plays Sgt. William James, based in Iraq and leading an elite squad carrying out what has to be one of the war’s most dangerous jobs: disarming bombs amidst the mayhem of urban street battles in Baghdad. It’s James’ job to climb into a bomb suit and march into the blast radius to detonate some seriously big and complex explosive devices planted by you never quite know who.
B.C.’s bomb squad regularly deals with improvised explosive devices or IEDs, which is how the RCMP described the device found on Harvey Avenue last month. But the EDU’s scope is actually much bigger, says Staff Sgt. Brian Elwood, who leads the unit from its Surrey base.
“Currently EDU is responsible for explosives (obviously) and related calls which include IEDs, post-blast investigations, as well as dealing with non criminal-related incidents such as deteriorated explosives that have become unsafe to handle or move,” said Elwood, in an email interview. “EDU also provides tactical explosive support to our emergency response team which involves the use of explosives to gain entry to a structure if necessary.”
Most of the devices the EDU deals with turn out to be something other than bombs, usually some kind of box with wires sticking out that in some way resembles the movie version of a bomb, but isn’t.
Elwood did not disclose how many times per year the unit is deployed, what kind of devices they usually find, or how often those devices are actually explosives.
In the recent Kelowna incident, it was indeed an IED, a device the RCMP described as “sophisticated”.
(No update on who might have built or planted the device on Harvey Avenue was available at press time.)
So, either way, if first responders get that call, they really have no choice but to treat it like a bomb until they determine that it isn’t, and bomb scares aren’t uncommon in B.C.
In Kelowna in 2015, a suspicious package found near the B.C. Dragoons armoury prompted police to cordon off the block and call in the bomb squad – forcing another hours-long wait – from the Lower Mainland. The package was found to be harmless.
On Jan. 23 this year, the Peace Arch border crossing in White Rock was briefly closed by a bomb scare. A middle school in Abbotsford was locked down due to a bomb threat last year. In 2018, police in Vancouver cordoned off part of Granville Street when what appeared to be an IED was found – it was also deemed harmless.
In 2013, two people were arrested for plotting to plant a bomb outside B.C.’s provincial legislature in what became known as the Canada Day bomb plot.
So, actual explosions are thankfully rare in B.C., and clearly films like The Hurt Locker really don’t match up to real-life situations involving bombs.
Unlike the movie, fortunately there are no reports in B.C. of bombs being strapped to live humans, or implanted in dead ones. But you know James and his squad in the movie have a lot of training, which is one way in which the unit certainly mimics the film.
The EDU also uses much of the same gear as Sgt. Williams and his squad roll out in the streets of Baghdad.
“EDU maintains a fleet of robots, X-ray systems and bomb suits. We have a very professional team dedicated to providing this province with the highest level response utilizing the most up-to-date tactics and equipment,” said Elwood.
“So you can imagine the immense training requirement for a position in EDU.”
Elwood said the unit is also responsible for responding to what they term CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear) calls. An example would be a suspicious incident involving anthrax, an acute infectious disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis.
Hollywood doesn’t seem to find anthrax as sexy as bombs, so even though their job sometimes involves significant risk, life on B.C.’s bomb squad isn’t much like the movies – and that’s a good thing.