Tom Dean says the bombings have him second-guessing people in the community. (CBC)

Residents in and around Tomslake, B.C., say months of tension and suspicion about pipeline bombings have driven a wedge between people in the community.

Local resident Tom Dean and his family have been caught in the crossfire. Dean's farm is just across the road from the latest explosion at an EnCana Corp. natural gas facility.

On Jan. 4, someone set explosives and destroyed a building on the property, the fourth explosion at an EnCana facility in northeastern B.C. since October.

It was late at night, no one heard anything and no one was hurt.

There was no damage to the pipeline that runs underneath Dean's farm, but he said the incident left his family shaken.

"To be honest, when the police visited us, I didn't know what to think. My first reaction was, 'I'm not surprised.'" Dean said.

"Then, as the days went on, I started getting madder and madder and madder. I'd sure like to think that someone in my community wouldn't have put my mother-in-law; my father-in-law; and my wife, my two children and myself in the kind of jeopardy that we're seeing."

Many wonder about neighbours: resident

The burning question on Dean's mind, like many others in the Tomslake area, is, "Who is behind this?"

"I like to think I have my ear to the ground but as it turns out, I don't. I don't really know. I'm second-guessing the relationship I have with a lot of the people I have in the community," Dean said.

It appears many in the area are taking a closer look at their neighbours, particularly since EnCana announced a $500,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and prosecution in the case.

Police say their phone line is ringing again and they've had dozens of tips.

However, there are many who say the reward, and the police, have become part of the problem.

Police experts at the scene of a bombing near an EnCana sour gas line outside of Dawson Creek, B.C., in October. (CBC)

They say some statements from the police, like the following from RCMP Sgt. Tim Shields, have put people on edge.

"There's a small group of individuals who've we spoken to many times. They know full well who they are, and they have not been co-operative with investigators," Shields said at one of many press conferences.

"We are appealing to them to come forward and talk to our investigators, and we are also appealing to friends and family members, if they have suspicions, that they come forward."

Locals say tactics have people pointing fingers

To resident Angela Sipe, both statements from the police and the reward appear to be part of an ongoing effort to drive wedges into the community.

Angela Sipe says her husband and neighbours have all been questioned in connection with the bombings. (CBC)

"People are just pitted against each other [and] pointing fingers," she said.

Police tactics, Sipe said, includes intense and repeated questioning of practically every person who lives in the region – including her husband and neighbours.

"They really didn't appreciate it," she said. "It makes them feel like they think everyone out there is to blame, and certain people are getting a lot more questioning than others but you know damn well deep in your hearts that they didn't do it."

Police admit the investigation had stalled prior to offering the reward.

The first three bombings came in October on facilities that carried poisonous sour gas.

In two cases, there were small leaks but the company said there was no risk to human health.

However, police said they were worried a bomber was becoming increasingly aggressive, with the attacks moving closer to homes. Then came the bombing near Tom Deans's house, the closest yet.

Among the few clues, police have a letter written to media outlets calling EnCana and other energy companies "terrorists" for expanding deadly gas wells and gave the companies a deadline to shut down their operations.

Police put up pictures of eight people who might have mailed it, but all of them ended up in the clear.

RCMP questions `could do more harm'

Jim Zacharias and his family, who live in the country near Tomslake, are well-known opponents to the expansion of the oil and gas industry.

After the bombings started, they even formed a group to write petitions demanding expansion stop, hoping to piggy-back on some of the media attention.

Jan Zacharias says the RCMP's investigative tactics are having negative consequences in the small community. (CBC)

That put them in the sights of the anti-terrorism investigators, Zacharias said, and they don't appreciate some of the tactics used by police.

"They asked the neighbours, 'Those Zachariases, they could do something like that, couldn't they?' How do I respond that? I didn't do it, so it's kinda funny … suggesting that your neighbour might be the bomber," Zacharias said.

Jan Zacharias, Jim's wife, said the RCMP's probes could do more harm than good.

"Maybe that's standard RCMP operating procedure but in small communities, where people have relationships with their neighbours, I'm not sure its most productive way to get what they're looking for," she said.

The Zachariases believe that, as bad as the bomber is, the effort to find the person responsible has left many in the area even more angry with police.

"I personally think it's brought people together against the police. It's kind of an unintended outcome. I find that people have banded together and all of a sudden the RCMP have become the enemy," Jim Zacharias said.

The reward may be helping loosen some lips, he said, but whoever claims the reward could end up getting run out of town.

"If it takes a reward to do the right thing ... then how do you then live in that community?'' Zacharias said.

"If you feel strongly that the bomber is someone who needs to be exposed, then why don't you do the right thing? Why did it take $500,000 to do the right thing?"