RCMP torch Rennie building after finding dynamite inside

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This article was published 08/09/2025 (199 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RCMP officers made the rare decision to burn a vacant building in the RM of Reynolds to remove old dynamite found inside.

On Aug. 24, officers from the RCMP’s explosive disposal unit were called to Rennie when nearly 40-year-old dynamite was found in an abandoned shed.

RCMP Sgt. Paul Manaigre said because the dynamite was old, it was too unstable to move. The officers made the decision to burn the building because it was the easiest way to dispose the dynamite without risk of exploding, he said.

“Even just trying to touch it or move it could result in some issues or cause it to explode, depending on the condition,” Manaigre said.

The Reynolds Fire Department worked with the officers to burn the building.

Maneigre said the discovered dynamite was previously used for removing beaver dams.

“Burning down the building, that’s a first for me,” he said.

Property owner Drew Kowal found the dynamite shortly after he purchased the land in September 2024. He found roughly 18 sticks of the explosive in the building. At first, the discovery made Kowal both excited and curious.

“It’s a once in a lifetime type of situation for us and our generation,” the 39-year-old told The Carillon. “If you go back 30 years or 40 years, you could go to any farm supply store and buy as much dynamite as you wanted without permit or regulation because it was commonly used to clear fields, blow up boulders or make ditches.”

He was also worried about the safety of his home and three children with having the dynamite so close by. Kowal wanted to eliminate the risk of a child getting too curious and wandering into the building, disturbing the explosives.

He initially called the RCMP when he first discovered it, but opted to wait until the summer to deal with the dynamite because he was concerned the water used for the fire would damage his home in the winter.

While Kowal wasn’t concerned about “randomly going off,” he said if something disturbed it, like a storm blowing a tree onto the building, it could’ve triggered the explosives.

Now that the both the dynamite and the building are gone, the next step is cleaning up the debris left behind, he said.