The news is very dramatic. A car exploding is very dramatic, sometimes. I walk around the block and yellow tape and flashing motorcycles block off the roads between here and there. Walking up Haro, shards of windshield were way down here. A firetruck and an ambulance, but for the most part, people were just walking their dogs and going to work with their earphones in, and I wonder if they heard anything at all.
What I heard: It didn't sound like fireworks. I didn't hear any screams. With a south facing window I thought something had crashed or exploded in English Bay. What was that? was all I heard from outside my window between neighbours maybe strangers. It looks like seven a.m. but I never know at this time of day. It's real quiet and my mind wanders from where to what. It was a compact boom and it was near. I'm still in bed when the birds started chirping again and then the sirens and then the helicopters. In those first few moments, there was no news, not yet, and now it's all over the place if you search west end car explodes.