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the tribune 30000 copies vol 2 no 33 a metroland community newspaper saturday august 16 1986 36 pages 25 cents town lawyer first on scene markham blast remains a mystery a devastated susan bates coowner of intra vil lage lanes travel walks away from the site of thursdays earlymorning explosion at markham village lanes with york regional police sergeant bill powell police and forensic experts arc con tinuing their investigation to determine the cause of the blast which caused an estimated 5 million dam age to the main st plaza bill lanning by jim thomas and cathy carter an enormous explosion we felt the pressure it shook the house thats how paul mingay solicitor for the town of whitchurch- stouffville described thursdays earlymorning blast that caused an estimated 5 million damage to the markham village lanes a unique shopping mall on the main street of markham paul and rena mingay live only a few doors north of the plaza site mr mingay was one of the first on the scene on his arrival he discovered roy whiston coowner of lindners fine dining standing on the sidewalk he had just locked up for the night and was walking to his car the force of the explosion knocked him to his knees initially mr mingay attributed the cause to a gas leak his opinion changed however when he observed no fire or smoke and smelled no fumes also the official personnel that arrived on the scene made him realize something out of the ordinary was going on i woke up with a terrible start said wife rena she too thought it was a gas explosion nancy gowland lives immediately adjacent to the mall it was some blast she said i had no idea what was going on at first she thought it was on her own property however except for several broken windows damage to her house appeared to be minimal blanche tran at 50 joseph street said the explosion pinpointed at around 115 am shook her bed even apartment residents as far south as the dublin and the village squire heard the thunderlike boom as late as friday forensic experts were still sifting through the rubble searching for clues a bomb is suspect its quite apparent some type of explosive substance was used said york regional police inspector george kydd he refused to speculate as to what kind detective sergeant barry delaney said the device was activated at the lower level near the front of the markham village womens club a ladies fitness centre it blew straight up and in all directions mr delaney explained fortunately no one was killed or injured much of the damage was confined to the rear of the plaza however most of the courtyard shops and boutiques suffered some loss none of the stainedglass windows were broken in st andrews presbyterian church across the highway kev allen embree told the weekender everything seems fine he said the scene on location was one of devestation with glass fragments and twisted pieces of metal everywhere one storeowner described it as like a war zone police revealed that manny elkind owner of the mall had received a threatening phone call at his residence on old forest road toronto only a short time before the explosion mr elkind has since hired a private party to protect his wife and children tony silverthorn a head waiter at lindners said that had mr whis ton parked his car had the rear of the plaza instead of the front hed have walked right into the blast roys lucky to be alive he said unbelievable was the way samantha bates of intra village travel described the scene its like something youd see on the set of hill street blues its like something you go to the movies to watch evan macdonald owner of markham village grocer went home early wednesday night often he works well past the time when the bomb went off he estimated the value of meat in his freezer at 30000 he said that while losses in this regard would be covered by insurance it wont come close to covering the length of time it takes to build up a business and develop customers markham mayor carole bell surveyed the devastation early thurs day morning im in a state of shock that something like this can happen in markham she said some plaza merchants broke down and cried openly on surveying the damage whats inside -v- directory comment p4 church pago p6 entertainment p12 childrens page p15 sports p1 17 and 18 real estate p20 to 27 classified p28 to 35