Department of National Defence contractors and Canadian Forces members found and detonated two explosives in their latest sweep of North Vancouver’s Blair Rifle Range Lands.
Today, the land off Mount Seymour Parkway is lined with recreational trails but from the 1930s until the 1960s, it was a military training site.
Over February and March, unexploded ordnance (UXO) experts were scouring a two-hectare swath of the lands with metal detectors, which turned up an unexploded three-inch mortal shell, and a fuse used to detonate mortars.
In both cases, the UXO team called in Canadian Forces explosives experts to come to the site, plant charges on the items and detonate them safely, with the public kept away. Based on the explosion the detonation produced, project manager Debbie Nicholls said the mortar shell would have been filled with high explosives.
The Department of National Defence has been working to clear all of its legacy sites in Canada, prioritizing those that pose the highest risk to the public first. When they were last at the Blair Rifle Range Lands in 2018, the found about 200 kilograms of mortar shells, practice rounds and grenade components.
“In 2018, the immediate dangers to the public were addressed when we cleared UXO from the open areas and the trails that are used by the public,” Nicholls said. “Because of that, the site no longer poses a high risk or immediate urgency to the public.”
The UXO team will be sent elsewhere for the summer but return this fall for a more substantial search, attempting to clear another seven hectares over five to seven months, Nicholls said.
The likelihood of UXO detonating on its own is extremely unlikely, but it is possible if one is disturbed, so Nicholls said it is imperative that no one dig holes or light fires within the Blair Rifle Range Lands. If a three-inch shell, were to go off, it could be deadly to anyone standing within 10 metres.
Disturbing areas that haven’t been cleared by the UXO team would be considered “medium risk,” Nicholls added.
“There may still be UXO remaining on the property,” Nicholls said.
If anyone comes across anything that looks like it may be UXO, they should immediately leave the area the way they came in and call 911, Nicholls said.
