HAMPSHIRE, P.E.I. - When a loud noise broke though an otherwise quiet Saturday night, one nearby resident said it “sounded like a bomb went off.”
Residents of Hampshire and its surrounding communities were unsettled by the explosion but had a difficult time finding out what happened. Several people contacted The Guardian wondering if any information had been released.
North River Fire Department Chief Anson Grant confirmed Monday that a vacant 30-foot travel trailer appears to have exploded in a remote area of a farmer’s field just before 9:30 p.m.
“We heard from several witnesses who called us saying it was quite a good explosion,” said Grant. “There were some fuel cans around on the scene, but I couldn’t speculate as to what caused it.
“There wasn’t a thing left. (The trailer) was destroyed.”
Grant said by the time firefighters arrived, the trailer had burned itself out, although some nearby trees were ablaze from the blast.
A resident of the nearby Colville Road, who asked to remain anonymous, said he had come across the trailer while out on his all-terrain vehicle earlier that same day.
He said the trailer sat about 500 metres off a section of the Confederation Trail between the Colville Road and Darlington.
The resident said the outside of the trailer was pockmarked with what appeared to be bullet holes and said it didn’t look as if anyone was living in it.
He returned to the scene the day after the explosion and snapped some photos of the destruction.
“It shook the houses,” he said of the explosion. “It was crazy.”
Queens District RCMP is investigating the matter. The Guardian was told no further information would be released until at least Thursday when the investigating officer returns to the detachment.
