Sunday's massive series of explosions at a Toronto propane plant gives credence to every Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) argument posed to this point in time.

Thousands of residents were forced to flee their homes after the early-morning explosions shattered windows and blew doors off their hinges in Toronto's Downsview area. One firefighter died and a gas company employee is still missing.

It could have been much, much worse, but the explosions has still led to questions often posed by the NIMBY faction.

Paramount is why Sunrise Propane Industrial Gases was allowed, three years ago, to build this distribution plant in a long-time residential area. This is exactly what the NIMBY faction complains about.

What zoning or planning incompetence allows this type of use near homes with children and parents and grandparents, etc.? What sort of colossal stupidity blinds municipal officials from the implications of locating something that could (and evidently will) explode near people?

Toronto officials say this plant was allowed under zoning that had been in place for more than a decade. They also said it would be reviewed.

A lot of good that will do now for all of those people returning to homes filled with shattered glass, and their doors ripped off.

The NIMBY faction is usually criticized on a number of fronts. Foremost is that its members don't particularly dislike a certain project, they just don't want it anywhere near them. This could involve anything from a gas station to a retail plaza, from a new school to a fast-food joint, from a restaurant/ bar to a townhouse development.

Actually, it doesn't even have to be in people's backyard for the NIMBY argument to apply .

In Barrie, Northern Ethanol's plan to build a plant on the former Molson Brewery site has faced opposition from residents in every part of the city.

Opposition to Bob Jackson's plan to built a wind turbine on his Mapleview Drive West Toyota dealership has, conversely, caused mostly local concerns.

In both cases, however, opponents fear the worse. That would be smell, air pollution, noise and bad traf fic with the ethanol plant, sound, ice chips, shadows and collapse with the turbine. And everyone is concerned about how it will affect their bottom lines, property values.

The point is, the reason people look at worst-case scenarios is that sometimes they happen. Industrial plants smell like sewers, towers collapse in a heap of rubble and things that can explode blow up.

That's what happened at Sunrise Propane Industrial Gases, and people who had to run out their front doors, kids and dogs and a few possessions in tow, deserve to know why.

Zoning shouldn't be the answer. Any municipal council worth its weight in paper can fight zoning, if it has the intestinal fortitude. Somebody just wasn't paying attention. Combustible substances in this quantity shouldn't be allowed anywhere near where people live.

This use shouldn't be in anyone's backyard.