POLICE and military officials descended on a West Vancouver neighbourhood Tuesday afternoon when workers uncovered a live decades-old bomb on a construction site.
Work on a new home in the 6700-block of Batchelor Bay Place in Whytecliff came to a halt at about 3 p.m. when crews digging on the property noticed something odd.
"They found a 16-inch munitions shell exposed on the round," said Cpl. Jag Johal, a spokesman for the West ancouver Police Department.
"It appeared to be live and heavily corroded."
The projectile, four inches in diameter and weighing around 15 kilograms, still had a detonator on its tip. A second shell - this one an empty casing - was also discovered.
Police arrived a short time later and set up a safety zone 100 metres from the weapons. Officers informed neighbours they might need to evacuate.
"It's advisable to be away from the device, because should it go off, if there's any shrapnel, et cetera . . . you could be exposed to it," said Johal, adding this is the first time he's heard of armaments being located in the district.
The Canadian Navy's Maritime Explosives Ordnance Disposal unit, based out of Esquimalt, B.C., was contacted to remove the bombs. They arrived shortly after midnight and took the explosive device away, detonating it in a secure location Thursday morning.
It's unclear how the shells ended up at the site, but the history of the area has given rise to some speculation.
General Victor Odlum, a Canadian soldier who fought
in the Boer War as well as the First and Second World Wars, owned the five-acre lot on which the home under construction and several surrounding properties sit.
"It's a possibility that it was once a souvenir, but it would've been a souvenir a long, long, long time ago," said Petty Officer Garry Solyon of the navy's bomb disposal unit.
"It could be that somebody had set a few of these up in the back corners of their gardens and then eventually they got plowed under."
Solyon cautioned residents who may have similar artifacts lying around to have them checked out.
"We have on several occasions picked up stuff that was in people's homes - grenades and bomblets and bombs - that were not safe."
WorkSafeBC is surveying the land to make sure there are no more explosives before construction resumes.
