Blast from the past

Humboldt County bomb squad member Ernie Stewart sets detonation cord in preparation for the second blast. (The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson)

A piece of World War II-era ordnance was detonated just blocks from Del Norte High School without causing any damage Friday afternoon.

It did take two explosions to destroy the relic.

Earlier, a Crescent City family that recently purchased a home off Breen Street and Washington Boulevard were cleaning their shed when they found something surprising.

Among a pile of old Army gear was a live round from a bazooka, the M6A1 Rocket.

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The more than 60-year-old piece of ordnance was rusty and pitted, and when the new homeowners realized what they had, they quickly deposited it in their front lawn and called the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office.

“It’s ironic because we were just training for incidents like this,” said sheriff’s Commander Bill Steven. “Right now the ordnance is covered in sand bags.”

After responding to the scene and putting sand bags around the rocket, the Sheriff’s Office called for the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team.

“They’re going to detonate the ordnance in place because it is too degraded to move safely,” Stevens said.

Humboldt County sheriff’s Sgt. and bomb squad member Ernie Stewart paused while putting on his protective gear and readying some C-4 plastique explosive to explain the procedure before the detonation took place.

“We place a shaped charge on top so that the force of the explosion goes into the ground instead of the surrounding area,” Stewart said. “It’s going to make a real big boom, like no firework you’ve ever experienced.”

Stewart said prior to the blast that most likely there would be no damage, but that it was possible the force of the explosion could take out one or two windows.

It actually took two shaped charges to fully pacify the ordnance.

“We ran into a slight problem,” said Steven. “While the first explosion took care of the explosive charge portion of the ordinance, it didn’t take care of the propellant shaft.”

The propellant shaft is what drives the rocket and Steven said that it could still have sent metal fragments at high velocities up to 300 feet.

So Stewart had to go back and re-explode the back part of the rocket.

Fortunately for the homeowners, who were not identified, there was no damage to their house from either explosion, and the second blast did the trick.