Granite City, IL An explosion occurred at the Total Metal Recycling (TMR) plant resulting in the death of two workers and the injury of another. The victims were 46 and 24 years old respectively. The explosion was reported to be from a live munition item that accidentally ended up getting mixed in with the scrap metal being recycled.
The man found an old object on the beach and began throwing it to his dog. Lucky for him and his dog, the explosives expert who happened to be close by recognized the object as a live WWII grenade. The technician quickly halted the game and set up a 30-yard boundary around the grenade. He then notified police and the coastguards.
Washington, DC Good news for UXO Technicians supporting Service Contract Act (SCA)contracts - The U.S. Department of Labor has released its annual memorandum noting a rate increase for SCA Health and Welfare Fringe Benefits.
The new rate is $4.02 per hour (up from $3.81 per hour last year), and a special rate of $1.66 per hour has been set for Hawaii (up from last year's $1.55 per hour).
Watervliet, New York A Civil-War era munition washed ashore on the bank of the Hudson River. The New York State Police Bomb Squad responded and safely transported the munition to a quarry 40-miles south of Glens Falls where it was safely disposed of through an open detonation procedures. The exact type of Civil-War era munition was not reported.
Whitsand Beach, United Kingdom The Royal Navy's Plymouth bomb disposal team executed a controlled explosion on a two-inch WWII mortar on a popular beach which they ironically discovered while responding to a call for another item which turned out to be non-explosive.
Plymouth-based EOD, Southern Diving Unit 1, found the British mortar, deemed it hazardous, and blew it up on-site. This unit has been called in to deal with a number of historic items of ordnance South West, an area heavily proliferated with munitions as part of preparations for potential invasion and the mounting of Operation Overlord to retake Europe via Normandy WWII.
San Miguel Island, California DoD-owned San Miguel Island, off the Southern California coast, will likely be closed for another year as the U.S. Navy investigates whether UXO remain on the island. The island has been closed to the public since April.
The last record of UXO found on the island was in the 1980s, but recent discoveries of metal objects in public areas are cause for concern according to a spokeswoman for Naval Base Ventura County.
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