Penner Fires Back Over Explosives Allegations in Baldy Beacon

Tonight, Elvin Penner is refuting serious accusations and offering his version of what really happened at Baldy Beacon. The former minister is at the center of claims that he tried to remove explosive materials from a restricted military destruction site. But Penner says that’s not the full story. He insists he was in the area keeping an eye on a fast-moving fire, which he believes was sparked by the very military operation underway. According to Penner, what caught his attention wasn’t just the blaze, but what he describes as a lack of security at the site. He claims he stepped in out of concern, fearing the fire could reach the explosives and trigger even greater danger. Penner says he believed the materials had been left behind, something he suggests isn’t unprecedented. He maintains his actions were about prevention, not wrongdoing. Here’s how he explained it to us.

 

Elvin Penner, Landowner

“What may appear to be at this point in time is this controversial figure all mixed up in something interesting and that is indeed the case. But it is interesting and also sensitive and I say that with all due respect to our security forces who have been breached and allowed to be breached in so many ways it is not funny. And I am not hoping to expose any of our security forces because I think they did the best with the resources they had at hand, but consultations could have been done with the actual owners of the property where some of these exercises have been taking place and the properties that have been now charred down to the ground again, repeating an incident that happened two years ago, the same fire fighters, personnel on the ground. That one they abandoned. They never returned.”

 

Paul Lopez

“You are saying that this morning when you were in the area, you thought it was another case of they had abandoned what you picked up?

 

Elvin Penner

“That was indeed what it appeared to be and I would have not picked up anything thing had it not been that the fire was now coming back to destroy what the operation had left behind. So in a way they owe me for those wires. Had I not moved them,  and maybe they just put them back and were able to continue their operation without the fire actually catching them. But the fire was dangerously close already.”

 

Authorities say they were close to finishing a major explosives cleanup when things took a dangerous turn. CEO Francis Usher reports the OAS team and BDF had destroyed nearly ninety percent of unexploded ordnance linked to last year’s Dave Burgos incident when a fast-moving fire broke out, forcing a joint response with the Forestry Department. Despite the setback, officials are pushing to complete the final stretch. But the situation escalated further, Usher says BDF soldiers caught Elvin Penner at the site allegedly removing explosive materials. Charging wires, white phosphorus, and fuel were reportedly found in his vehicle. The case is now being handed over to police for possible charges.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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