The man who blew up several stores on Broadway Wednesday morning is not only in trouble with the law -- he's fighting for his life.
When the man touched off the explosion that ripped apart a Taco Del Mar franchise and a Starbucks on Wednesday, he ended up burning himself severely.
Police say he checked himself into hospital with burns covering 40 per cent of his body. Hospital officials were the ones who called police.
The bomber lit a flame at 2:30 in the morning inside the Taco Del Mar restaurant. The accelerant he used mixed into the air and exploded, sending glass and furniture raining down on the busy shopping district.
He escaped through an alley, tossing his burned clothing. He asked to use the phone in a Mr. Sub on Main Street.
Then he called a cab. The taxi driver didn't want to take him all the way to Surrey. So the suspect had to transfer to another cab at a taxi yard.
And it was all captured on camera, because the cameras in both cabs were rolling.
Cab 107 dropped the suspect off on a street in Newton, where another man was waiting to pay the fare.
Investigators will not say what type of accelerant was used, but said one gallon of gas can be equivalent to 15 sticks of dynamite when it is lit on fire.
The investigation is ongoing. Police have not charged the man nor identified him by name.
The owner of the restaurant told CTV News she was shaken up that an arsonist targeted her restaurant.
"I am very shaken up," said Manjeet Nanda. "And hardly standing up ... I'd just like to know what happened."
Nanda, the owner of two Taco del Mar restaurants, wanted to sell the West Broadway location to "take some rest," she told CTV's Shannon Paterson.
She says she "no idea" who may have targeted her restaurant.
One witness says she saw someone in black clothes running from the scene.
"I saw a security guard on the intersection, and I saw guy, I don't know who he is, with black clothes and a black hat, and he was running," Preety Agrawal told CTV News.
"He was running to cross the street, and go to the down, not up," she said. "He was tall, like five-eleven, six feet, and skinny ... I cannot say about his face.
Damages to the area are estimated at two million dollars, including structural damage to a nearby medical building.
The blast on Broadway could have injured or killed innocent people. It turns out the only person hurt was the man who police say was responsible.
With a report by CTV British Columbia's Lisa Rossington
