'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.