Fireworks explosion in South Los Angeles: After the failed detonation at the Los Angeles Police Department, the 500-pound containment cover was restored several blocks

Fireworks explosion in South Los Angeles: After the failed detonation at the Los Angeles Police Department, the 500-pound containment cover was restored several blocks

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Angel (KTLA) – After a bomb disposal team in South Los Angeles detonated homemade fireworks to cause an explosion, a lot of damage remained. The staff pulled a 500-pound lid from “someone’s yard” to the failed explosion on the second day of Friday’s cleanup In the container, the official said.

Assistant Special Agent Michael Hoffman in charge of the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Administration said that a bulky lid was found three to four blocks away from the explosion center on East 27th Street and was dragged away from the scene for further analysis.

Hoffman said it is not yet clear how long it will take to clear the site that spans several blocks so that residents can go home.

On Wednesday night, 17 people were injured in the explosion, including nine Los Angeles police officers and a federal agent. The explosion also flipped and damaged cars and smashed windows in houses and laundromats. The explosion can be heard several blocks away.

It may take a few days to determine why the material exploded in the spherical containment shell on the tractor trailer, tearing the rig in an otherwise safe operation to deal with unstable and unable to be removed from the historic South Central community Explosives, a large number of illegal fireworks were found there.

ATF experts from all over the country rushed to the scene on Thursday evening and Friday morning to investigate the cause, and plan to work from the holiday weekend to the beginning of next week.

Hoffman said at a press conference on Friday afternoon: “What we are currently trying to do is to help people return to their homes and to reduce the footprint of the actual scene.”

Investigators are collecting evidence on the streets around the explosion and removing some vehicles. Some cars are badly damaged and cannot be driven and are being towed away, but residents can retrieve their working cars.

“Some of these vehicles will be released to their owners. So if someone is affected by their vehicle or needs to use their vehicle, please go to the outskirts of 27th and San Pedro [streets],” said the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. Ruby Flores.

Officials also escorted people into their residences to retrieve essential items such as medicines.

On the morning of Thursday, July 1, 2021, police walked past the wreckage of an armored tractor trailer at the Los Angeles Police Department. The illegal fireworks previously seized in a residence in South Los Angeles exploded in South Los Angeles on Wednesday night. (AP Photo/Damian Dowaganis)

A refuge was set up at the Fred Roberts Recreation Center in the Central-Alameda community at 4700 Honduras St.Officials are still working to establish an assistance center where residents can obtain services and restore information, but Resource catalog has been published online.

On Friday, the authorities were still unable to provide any answers as to why the explosion occurred.

Experts said that the explosion is very unusual, especially for law enforcement agencies that have the scale and resources of the Los Angeles Police Department. The explosion may be the result of human error—for example, incorrectly sealed containers or material overload—or equipment defects, such as microcracks that grow over time and use. Or both.

“They are lucky that no one was killed here,” said Glenn Corbett, a professor of fire science at the John Jersey College of Criminal Justice in New York.

Corbett said that bomb teams across the country may now carefully inspect their own equipment in remote areas to ensure that their containment is free of potential defects. These defects may harm more people, which may hurt even more. Many people.

The Los Angeles Police Department did not answer questions seeking information on Thursday, such as the age of the containment shell and the number of times it was used and inspected.but Chief Michelle Moore I said before, “It is clear that the agreement has been complied with and implemented.”

“But something that shouldn’t have happened in that containment, and we don’t know why,” Moore said. “But we intend to find out why.”

Moore said that less than 10 pounds of material were placed in the chamber, far below its safety level. He described the material as 40 homemade devices the size of Coca-Cola cans with simple fuses and 200 smaller but similar devices.

“This ship should be able to handle these materials,” he said. Instead, “the containment vehicle has experienced a complete catastrophic failure.”

Normally, heavy hydraulic doors will latch and lock—usually by remote control—and the explosion is instantaneous. The shock wave of displacement is absorbed by the container and released safely to the outside.

“You don’t even know,” said Sean Dennis, chairman and co-founder of the American Bomb Technicians Association, except for a low clang and a slight hiss when the pressure is released.

The Los Angeles Police Department did not specify which company made the containment device. Attempts to contact several manufacturers on Thursday were unsuccessful.

Before the explosion, the police spent a day dealing with about 3,000 to 5,000 pounds of commercial-grade fireworks found in the home after the early morning reminder. Moore said police found some cardboard boxes in the yard, stacked 8 to 10 feet high.

In Los Angeles and the unincorporated areas of the county, it is illegal to sell or own fireworks.

Moore said that a 27-year-old resident Arturo Sejas was arrested for possession of a destructive device, but he may also face charges of harming children because his 10-year-old brother is at home.

It is not clear if Cejas has a lawyer who can speak on his behalf.

“Made in China” is marked on the firework carton. The police chief said they bought them from outside the state to sell them nearby for use on July 4.

John Jay’s professor of forensic science, Peter Diaczuk, said the size of the explosion indicated that the high-explosive device would not be used for local Independence Day celebrations.

As the holiday approaches, statewide fire departments are confiscating tens of thousands of pounds of illegal fireworks and warning users that setting them off may cause devastating wildfires. The Los Angeles police announced on Thursday that they had seized another 1 ton of illegal fireworks from a container, and the bomb disposal team used trucks to transport them to the storage facility.

In Los Angeles, Moore said on Wednesday that three vans and a 53-foot trailer were taken to their home in South Los Angeles to load fireworks and move them to a safe place. However, the person in charge said that the “improvised explosives” that were also found were too dangerous to move.

There is a 300-foot border around the ship—a typical safety zone—before the explosion, the police knocked on the door and evacuated the truck from the houses on both sides of the street. But firefighters later found people in some houses, officials said.

Diakzuk said that it is not uncommon for the bomb disposal team to not know the exact composition of the homemade explosives they detonated.

“You don’t know what you are dealing with. You don’t know what this character does,” he said. “It doesn’t come with ingredients like you go to the grocery store.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.



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