It Blow’d Up Reeeal Good: Officials Destroy Explosive-Filled Mobile Home
A few too many paranoid people are hoarding a few too many weapons of war and heavy explosives. We have one less such home to worry about – but just because they’re out to get us because they think we’re out to get them doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be paranoid:
Sheriff’s deputies in far Northern California on Sunday successfully incinerated a mobile home whose resident had amassed more than 60 pounds of highly volatile explosive material days after evacuating dozens of people living nearby.
The chemicals, gunpowder, primers for firearms cartridges and other materials found in the house in a sparsely populated area of Redding earlier this month made it too unstable for deputies to even walk on the property without risking a blast, Shasta County sheriff’s Lt. Dave Kent said.
Sheriff’s officials consulted with water and air quality officials before starting the incineration with a remote-ignited flame at midday Sunday, and the fire went off without incident, he said.…
[M]andatory evacuations around the residence began Feb. 7 and were expanded on Friday, bringing the total to about 46 homes under evacuation orders, Kent said.
Authorities found the combustible material on Feb. 6 after responding to an explosion at the home that took off a man’s hand.
The resident, identified as D. Ray East, 63, lost his left hand above the wrist, broke his right elbow and injured his right eye in the blast, Kent said.