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weekender august 16 1986 p3 explosion wreaks havoc in markham a markham firefighter looks through the rubble in markham village grocers following thursdays earlymorning explosion at markham village lanes on main st forensic experts are continuing their investigation to determine the cause of the blast no one was injured manny elkind right owner of markham village lanes speaks with a police detective shortly after thursdays explosion at the main st plaza dam age is estimated to be as high as 5 million by paula crowell staff reporter an explosion thursday morn ing at a markham shopping cen tre affected many people in a variety of ways the blast which took place at 116 am at markham village lanes could be heard by resi dents as much as msmile away from the scene on main st north of hwy 7 roy whiston coowner and bar manager of lindners restaurant was the only person at the mall when the explosion took place he had just locked up the lower level banquet facilities and had climbed the stairs when he felt the blast it knocked him to his knees if i had been 23 seconds later i would have been blown away he said in an interview yesterday under normal circumstances mr whiston 50 would have been working later however wednes day night wasnt too busy and most of the staff was sent home by midnight i just thank god i could have been waving down from heaven today he said margaret mckavanagh of wootten way north said she and her husband were awakened by what sounded like someone slam ming their garage door her home is almost one mile away from the shopping centre half of the house shook we could feel the vibrations she said no one was on the street outside so we thought for sure it was something in the house ann middlebrook of windridge dr also heard the blast it scared the daylights out of us we just had gas put in and we thought it was the gas exploding it seemed like everything in the house compressed for a few seconds she said many of tfie merchants havent yet been allowed in their stores to survey the damage while some of it is cosmetic broken glass and broken doors there is con cern that the building suffered structural damage bruce hill of hillebrand wines said only one bottle of wine was broken in his store well this is one way to attract people to the plaza he joked valerie baxter of remax real ty ltd said of the newlyopened office good thing we got our grand opening over with but added guess were moving again merchants werent the only people affected by the explosion steve lennox and his fiance catherine veres planned to have their wedding reception on satur day aug 23 at banquet facilities in the village lanes they booked the hall in january and mr lennox said everything was going smoothly until the ex plosion this is just unbelievable he said despite the calamity mr len nox joked that his future father- inlaw planned it to prevent the wedding from taking place the chances of finding an alter nate location for the reception in a week are slim he admitted the helpline connection heres help if your business dealings with merchants in the markham village lanes have been interrupted by the bomb blast intra village lanes travel anyone holding a file especially those travelling within the next two weeks are urged to get in touch as soon as possible the agency has tem porarily relocated to custom interiors at 131 main st n in the tremont hotel phones will be installed monday with the old phone number 471- 1424 susan bates coowner says computer records and files are buried under rubble and tickets will have to be re issued which takes time rcmax real estate best advice for clients is to contact their agent at home or call the remax number to reach their temporary office at guardian real estate four desks 30 agents charles de- bourbon of remax said the company is jumping to find a new location and asks that clients be extra patient during the transition la hair design clients are asked to call svengali at 471- 6662 to reach operators such as venet classique from la or owner angelo nicastro canada employment cen tre contact the scarborough office at 200 town centre court mccowan and hwy 401 or phone 9734400 for employ ment or 9734425 for unem ployment insurance if there are other items needing publicity please call the editorial department of the economist at 2942200 and well try to print them in the next issue markham firefighters survey the twisted wreckage caused by an explosion at markham village lanes on thursday the blast which could be heard and felt up to a 4mile away occurred about 115 am photos by bill lanning uc deliver we can deliver your flyers for as lillle as 35c each call advertising at 2942200 or distribution at 2948244 1986 fliers deliiercd lojum economist a sunf ribune 5760900 mclrolind distributing 147147400 flyers with weekender canadian tire patio warehouse crolhers pharmacy carlaw music images selected areas wfbsm ken shick