Pubdate: Mon, 20 Oct 2008 Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU) Copyright: 2008 Canwest Publishing Inc. Contact: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?188 (Outlaw Bikers) 'IT WAS LIKE THE APOCALYPSE' Many Hope Fire Is The End Of An Era At the scene of the crime yesterday, residents of this industrial town of 35,000 said they hoped the weekend fire at the Hells Angels bunker spelled the end of the gang's presence here. Mayor Marcel Robert told reporters provincial anti-gang laws and local bylaws prohibit the construction or reconstruction of a fortified bunker without special permit. The mayor stopped short of speculating on whether this means bunkers in Trois Rivieres and Lennoxville will evolve into more important operation centres for the outlaw biker gang. Yesterday, residents here, many of whom had watched as the spectacular blaze consumed the bunker overnight Saturday, said they could only hope. "Maybe they will make it into a park or some condos or two bungalows," said a resident who lives nearby and whose home was evacuated by the Red Cross during the fire. Ever since the police crackdown on bikers in Quebec and the 2002 imprisonment of Hells leader Maurice (Mom) Boucher for masterminding the killing of two prison guards in 1997, residents said, the Sorel bunker has been relatively inactive. "In terms of what we have seen, yes, the activity here seems to have decreased," Robert said during a walkabout at the scene yesterday. "But can we say behind the scenes they have been inactive as well? I'm not so sure. But those are questions that city hall can't answer," said Robert. Police are not ruling out the connection with last week's huge seizures of commercial-grade explosives and detonators in Mont Joli and Montreal. However, S=FBrete du Quebec spokesperson Joyce Kemp said yesterday that the next step is for investigators to comb through the ashes and rubble to look for any and all pertinent evidence. Two clapboard houses within the compound were largely untouched by the fire. All that appeared to be left of the bunker was a chimney, remnants of some the exterior walls and a red metal door that read: Hells Angels Inc./Montreal Inc. MC/ Since 1977 In the hour after the fire erupted at 9:10 p.m. Saturday, authorities cut electricity to the downtown core. The billowing flames rising above the bunker were the only source of light in downtown Sorel. "It was like the apocalypse," said one resident of the Tracy district of Sorel-Tracy who drove to the scene at 11 p.m. Robert said he was told that a fuel tanker truck rammed through the front gate of the compound, drove to one side of the main building and then smashed through a garage door. From there, the speculation is that the driver opened a valve of the tankard, letting fuel drop onto the garage floor, before walking backward out of the compound while emptying his own can of gasoline to create a trail that could be ignited. However, Kemp said it is too early to confirm the speculation that was making the rounds yesterday among hundreds of area residents who came out to satisfy their own curiosity. Kemp said investigators were waiting until firefighters were certain the fire was completely extinguished before going into the compound to look for evidence themselves. She said the SQ had the necessary search warrant in hand but it would not be until last night that the fire, which smoldered throughout the day, was entirely out. The SQ set up a mobile bus command centre on the corner of Prince and Provost Sts., where the Hells moved after they were chased out of metropolitan Montreal by local police Most hope the fire will chase the Hells out of Sorel, but at least one resident said he was fearful that, with the Hells gone, undisciplined street gangs could move into town and make the streets even more dangerous. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin