Downtown lockdown

For residents of Prince Rupert seeking out details on Thursday's excitement in the downtown core the pickings seemed rather slim by Friday (and through the weekend).

Local media coverage of Thursday' s bomb scare at the DFO in Prince Rupert was rather lacking overall, considering the attention that the exercise gained in the city, the newsgatherig organizations of the city didn't seem to pull out all the stops as they say in the pursuit of the story.

From occasional but brief, mentions on the radio, to a few bits of information pieced together on the Northern View website, Rupertites were left for the most part for that less than reliable method of communication through the on line chat lines, coffees shops, stores and drinking establishments of Prince Rumour.

The Daily News, caught up to the curve of sorts on Friday, when it provided its report on Thursday afternoons excitement in downtown Prince Rupert, a short story with a bit of background on the incident which saw a two block area of the city shut down for most of the late afternoon and evening.

In a bit of a surprise though, the story was not featured as the main headline story of Friday's paper, but instead was presented as a sidebar piece on the front page and featured no photos, nor did it really add much more new information to the story of one of the major incidents in the city this year.

The story is posted to the Daily News website, as are updates from the Northern View listed on their site, CFTK TV has yet to mention the story on their website and the local CBC Radio site likewise had no mention of the story by Sunday morning

We'll add the latest item from the Daily News to the Podunkian archive of information on the Thursday threat that we've been compiling here since the story first broke Thursday afternoon.

Downtown gets locked down over fears about bomb in DFO office
The Daily News
Friday, April 18, 2008
Page one

Several blocks of downtown Prince Rupert were shut down and many buildings evacuated Thursday afternoon after a bomb threat was made targetting the Department of Fisheries and Oceans at approximately 3 p.m.

The DFO's regional office is housed in the Government of Canada building on Second Avenue West.

A perimeter was established preventing foot and vehicle access to the building's vicinity, essentially keeping people off Second Avenue and Third Avenue and making it very difficult for drivers to cross from one side of the city to the other.

"We got the call from police, and they said please get everyone out of the building as soon possible," said Doug Jay, Prince Rupert's city administrator, after city hall was among the buildings in the area that was forced to be evacuated.

Several other downtown stores and offices were also emptied.

And other DFO offices in the province were also targetted, including those in Nanaimo and Vancouver, which were evacuated and investigated by the RCMP.

It is believed those buildings were evacuated at approximately 2 p.m., and within two hours both the Vancouver and Nanaimo facilities were inspected and the threats against them were found to be null and void by the RCMP.

Prince Rupert RCMP, Prince Rupert Fire Department and the Prince Rupert Port Authority were all on scene blocking traffic and pedestrians from entering the area spanning from First Street to Fifth Street and First Avenue to Third Avenue, and partially up Fulton Street.

According to RCMP, a preliminary search of the building turned up nothing but the process was slowed by the need to wait for the arrival of a police service dog trained in explosive detection.
It's already being speculated that the provincial bomb scare to DFO offices was somehow related to the commercial salmon fishery, and more specifically rumours that some fisheries may only open for as little as one day this season.

Investigation into the bomb threat continues. Police are following up on tips they have received and will exhaust all avenues in order to ensure a full and thorough investigation, said a police spokesperson.