Photo by Joern Rohde/wpnn.org

Two Whistler firefighters wait outside a cordoned-off La Bocca Restaurant in Whistler Village on Monday (Oct. 6) after Monday’s explosion.

UPDATE: An explosion that Whistler’s fire chief called “formidable” rocked a restaurant in Whistler Village on Monday (Oct. 6). Three restaurant workers were injured, including one who was transported to Vancouver because of what rescue personnel feared might be a blast concussion.

The cause of the blast, which occurred at around 1:30 p.m., in the kitchen area of La Bocca, is still under investigation, said Rob Whitton, chief of the Whistler Fire Rescue Service (WFRS). “From our end of it, right now nothing is looking suspicious in any way, shape or form,” Whitton said Monday afternoon.

As to the cause, Whitton said, “I have a theory but I’d like to keep that until we can have a look through and check things off as we go through it.”

All three of the injured restaurant workers were males. While one employee was taken to Vancouver for treatment, two were taken to the Whistler Health Care Centre suffering from minor burns and cuts, Whitton said.

Whitton said three food and beverage establishments near Village Square — La Bocca, the Amsterdam Café and La Brasserie — were cordoned off after the blast and are likely to be closed for at least a week, perhaps longer, while investigators determine the exact cause of the blast. The three establishments share kitchen and cooler facilities, he said.

After the explosion, he said, a Terasen Gas official was called in to shut off the supply of propane to the establishments. An electrical inspector is also being called in, and after the damage is repaired, a health inspector will also have to sign off on the work, Whitton said.

Whitton said the blast was powerful enough to hurtle a large object into the kitchen’s ceiling, making what he called a “dent” in the ceiling structure. He said several kitchen appliances were also damaged.

Michael Siemens of Vancouver, who estimated he and his wife Rosemary were 100 metres from the blast when it occurred, said that shortly after the explosion, he saw people running away from building and into Village Square. The Siemenses then went around to the back of the building, where they saw a man — apparently a restaurant employee — who was “covered in soot” from the blast. Another woman emerged holding her ears, Siemens said.

“We saw all the patrons running from the outdoor dining area across the street to put some distance between themselves and the explosion — probably about 15 or 20 people going across toward Citta’,” Siemens said. “There were a couple of girls, each with a child, who lived upstairs and they had both run out after they heard the explosion, with their kids, and they were waiting outside to go back in again.”

Whitton said a blast concussion is when the body’s internal organs suffer from the force of a blast. Lungs, for example, can collapse as a result of such a blast, he said. That’s not to say that’s what happened to the injured man, but that was rescue workers’ fear, he said.

Whitton said that while patrons of the restaurant were shaken up, and may have suffered ringing ears from the blast, none were injured.

“This was a formidable explosion that could have resulted in some major injuries, and we’re fortunate that other than the three individuals that we’ve spoken about, that everyone else seems to be OK,” Whitton said. “We’ve just been very fortunate.”

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