Illegal Fireworks Explode In Los Angeles Bomb Squad Truck, Hurting 17

[Omaha Steve]

Source: NPR

By JACLYN DIAZ

A stockpile of illegal fireworks detonated following attempts by the Los Angeles Police Department's bomb squad to destroy the explosives. The force of the blast destroyed the department's armored truck, injured 17 people and required the evacuation of nearby homes.

On Wednesday evening LAPD bomb squad officers were in the process of seizing more than 5,000 pounds of illegal fireworks at a home in South Los Angeles, the department said. Some of those fireworks were being stored in the department's armored trailer as a precautionary measure when it exploded.

A stockpile of illegal fireworks detonated following attempts by the Los Angeles Police Department's bomb squad to destroy the explosives. The force of the blast destroyed the department's armored truck, injured 17 people and required the evacuation of nearby homes.

On Wednesday evening LAPD bomb squad officers were in the process of seizing more than 5,000 pounds of illegal fireworks at a home in South Los Angeles, the department said. Some of those fireworks were being stored in the department's armored trailer as a precautionary measure when it exploded.


Read more: https://www.npr.org/2021/07/01/1012077924/illegal-fireworks-explode-in-los-angeles-bomb-squad-truck-hurting-17

[magicarpet]

1. Newbies and trainees on the bomb squad ?

I thought these guys were ex-military explosives and detonation specialist highly trained not to make boo-boos.

[sarisataka]

6. They are highly trained. It is very uncommon for an EOD person

(Explosive Ordinance Disposal) to make a second mistake.

[Sancho]

2. The police build an IED?

[Goonch]

3. ;-{)

[BumRushDaShow]

4. This whole story was confusing when I heard it on the radio

because at least here (and probably other places), if you are talking about bomb squad "destroying", then there are these funky looking units they stick them in to do the deed -



Reading the OP article, it says they were "storing" what they seized in the truck that eventually blew up and that to me suggests some kind of procedure change for the future.

[NullTuples]

5. That's because it looks like they are doing a bit of CYA

Initial reports during the live broadcast were that they were intentionally detonating the fireworks on-site, then when things went bad the statement was that they, "misidentified what and how much" they put into the canister to detonate.

It wasn't until a number of hours later that their story changed to them storing the fireworks for later detonation and "somehow they mysteriously went off all on their own".

In at least one of the on the scene news videos before the explosion the sphere container was clearly visible.

[CrispyQ]

7. Sounds like they wanted to have their own fireworks display & things went south.

This is the kind of bad decision making that comes from lack of accountability—from an attitude that the police can do whatever they want. There will be some strong word said & paid time off & that will be it. The residents should sue.

[Warpy]

10. Sounds like there might have been pilferage to me, too

Last edited Thu Jul 1, 2021, 11:51 AM - Edit history (1)

The problem with seized fireworks from assholes who smuggle in large amounts of illegal fireworks is that most of them haven't been properly stored. They get very unstable when they get damp and then dry out

Even in the absence of pilferage, improperly stored fireworks can spontaneously combust. The only safe way to store them is under water, and that makes disposal more problematic.

Edit: Look for the video first, stupid. It looks more like they were in the process of loading the stuff into the truck when it blew the truck up. The stuff was smuggled in from China and some of it was homemade. That's a real recipe for disaster. I'm just glad no one was killed. Whoever brought that crap in should spend a long time in jail thinking it over.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. Ahh okay...

Yeah that is gonna be a mess of an investigation and finger-pointing and whatnot.

I don't know what kind of temperature control is available or was in-use in that truck but I can imagine an even worse catastrophe had L.A. not had mild temperatures (low 80s as a high) yesterday vs what they have been going through further upstate and in the PNW states with the triple digit temps.

It's obvious that stuff was unstable.

[NullTuples]

12. Statement from the LAPD *before* the explosion

...detailing that they were planning to detonate some on site. Apparently under some large oaks. In a residential neighborhood.

Today that part of their story has largely disappeared, as if the carnage was just a random act of God or something. Best guess from experts so far is that the bomb squad either grossly underestimated to the point of incompetence or just got sloppy.

Link to tweet

[Warpy]

13. Raw video is now out

The story is still a little confused, but it looks like what was in the containment vessel was part of a fireworks to bomb conversion operation.

Improperly stored fireworks get very unstable. Chances are they did nothing wrong. The assholes responsible for this did.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/south-los-angeles-fireworks-explosion-lapd-injuries/

[BumRushDaShow]

15. I saw earlier raw video footage

from an angle to the front of the truck - apparently done by someone cell-phone recording the scene, who happened to have caught the explosion in their footage.

I would think that those detonation vessels are designed to handle explosives more powerful than improvised "fireworks".

So either they had too much inside the thing, or they had their whole load in the truck (the articles all say they seized 5000 lbs of it) along with some amount in the vessel, and detonating what was in the vessel ended up shock detonating anything else temporarily "stored" in the truck.

[Warpy]

16. Well, there wasn't room to "store" much

I agree they probably overloaded the vessel, wanting to have as few bangs as possible since it was too dangerous to move out of the neighborhood. Black powder explosives of unknown provenance can be incredibly unstable, especially when they've gotten damp and then dried out. Driving the truck anywhere else would have risked disaster at the first bump.

The only safer thing would have been to put them under water, but only if they were in porous containers. If they were pipe bombs, simply detonating them was safer.

(Bona fide: teenager from hell)

[Kali]

17. holy shit

looks like what we tried to do to toy trucks

[Warpy]

18. Tried?

Heh heh heh.

[Kali]

19. well...

[Sapient Donkey]

20. I'm no expert, but I don't it was supposed to do that.

Wow. Someone is gonna be in trouble.

**That cop was about to shoot the dog. I mean, come on. Destroy the guy's car and house, and then threaten to shoot his dog?

[truthisfreedom]

9. Five thousand pounds of fireworks?

When you’re disposing of fireworks aren’t you supposed to soak them in water? Why would they put thousands of pounds of fireworks together in one truck without soaking them in water first?

[Warpy]

14. Apparently the bulk of the fireworks wee packaged and on a turck elsewhere

The containment truck was used for the really dangerous stuff, the homemade fireworks/IEDs. It's unclear at the present what was really going on, but my guess was a fireworks to bomb operation of some kind.

The blast looked like black powder, bright white with copious white smoke.

Maybe they just overloaded the containment unit, trying to dispose of too many of them at once.

This story is going to change a lot, IMO.

[JohnnyRingo]

11. Thank Goodness they took them off the streets

Such fireworks can be very dangerous in the hands of citizens. Leave it to the pros to safely handle them.

Yesterday that would have been a sensible statement.