A bomb squad truck explosion occurred while it was transporting illegal fireworks in South LA. Seventeen people hurt including nine LAPD officers and one ATF agent
The following written content from ABC7
What was supposed to be a safe operation to destroy a cache of illegal fireworks turned into a “total, catastrophic failure” of a Los Angeles police bomb squad vehicle that resulted in a massive explosion in South L.A., rocking a neighborhood and injuring 17 people, including 10 law enforcement officers, authorities say.
The bomb squad truck remained on the street in the 700 block of East 27th Street near San Pedro Street Thursday morning as investigators worked to maintain the integrity of the scene.
A national Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives team was expected to arrive to conduct their investigation.
“This was completely unexpected. They followed all the protocols in place. It was not really one of these explosions that was unplanned. This was planned,” LAPD Lt. Raul Jovel said at a press conference.
Officials say the material being inside the LAPD truck made the blast more dangerous.
“You put a destructive device inside a closed container where it’s pressurized, when it blows up, that is a big punch,” Jovel said. “If some of these devices were to explode in the open, the impact would be a lot less because the blast would really go in all directions.”
The blast, which happened shortly after 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, sent 10 police officers and a federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives officer to the hospital with minor injuries, Fire Chief Ralph M. Terrazas said. Homes, cars and a laundromat had windows shattered, and one car had its side plowed in and was knocked on its side by the force of the blast, which was heard two blocks away.
Six civilians, ranging in age from 51 to 85, were taken to the hospital, three with minor and three with moderate injuries, and one person was examined at the scene but wasn’t transported, fire officials said.
Several homes in the area were also damaged, and city officials were evaluating them to determine if they were structurally sound.
Earlier in the day, the LAPD seized at least 5,000 pounds of illegal fireworks from a home. At a news conference Wednesday night, LAPD Chief Michel Moore said work was being done throughout the day to move illegal commercial-grade fireworks to an offsite location.
During the operation, 40 coke-can-sized improvised explosive devices with fuses and 200 additional smaller devices with similar construction were found. The material was transferred to a “total containment vehicle” with an iron chamber, which is designed to house explosive material that can be safely detonated.
When the items were detonated shortly after 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Moore said there was a “total catastrophic failure of that containment vehicle.”
“Clearly protocols were followed and pursued, but something happened in that containment vehicle that should have not happened, and we don’t know why, but we intend to find out why,” Moore said.
Residents told Eyewitness News they felt the blast from inside a building more than a quarter-mile away.
“I was asleep when I felt like the whole bed was shaking. It felt like a really hard earthquake,” one resident said. “It sounded huge.” Read more from ABC7
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