Bomb Squad Responds To Aging Dynamite
Glendora, California the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department bomb squad responded to a residential property after the great-grandson of a deceased homeowner was cleaning out the basement when he found 22 sticks of very old dynamite in a cardboard box.
Members of the bomb squad, told reporters covering the find that the dynamite had turned grainy and deteriorated to the point that the nitroglycerin had crystallized resembling mold on cheese. Some sticks had bent and others looked as if they were about to break, said Det. Oscar Corcio, also on the bomb squad.
To neutralize the dynamite, the bomb technicians poured diesel fuel onto the dynamite and let it soak for about two hours, a process called desensitizing. After soaking in diesel, bomb techs donned in a bomb suit hand carried out each individual stick to a ditch outside the house where a controlled burn was conducted.
Det. Corcio told reporters, "If you're not being safe and not being focused, things can go bad really quickly. "In the same way you pick it up gently, you place it down extremely, extremely gently."
In all, it took about nine hours to dispose of the dynamite.