Posted on 01/11/2006 11:34:51 AM PST by Yaelle
Explosive Devices Found In Water Off Huntington Harbour
LOS ANGELES -- Divers worked Wednesday to remove at least eight commerical grade explosives discovered in the harbor here, imposing a cell phone ban to prevent accidental detonation.
The explosives were described as blasting caps used to trigger large explosions in mines and other sites and were considered highly unstable, said Jim Amormino, spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
They are about the size of shotgun pellets and were spread over a 150-yard area beneath nine to 15 feet of water, he said. They appeared to be intentionally placed on the ocean floor, he added.
"They are very unstable in salt water. They do pose a threat to the divers, any swimmers, any boaters in the area," he said. "Cell phone signals can detonate those explosives" so a "no cell phone" zone was ordered for several hundred feet surrounding the shoreline, Amormino said.(snip)
http://www.nbc4.tv/news/6004249/detail.html
(Riley slowly bangs his head on his desk, repeating over and over 'frickin' media idiots'.)
"We want to know how they got here, how many of them are out there," Amormino said.
how did they KNOW they were there?
I doubt you'll get an answer to that one.
It's just good to know they found them before anything occurred.
I was wondering that as well... what were the divers originally hired for - and working on - when they discovered the explosives?
just a harnessbull getting in some facetime :)
I heard it on the news at 12:30pm on KFI 790.
I was listening to Sean Hannity. Made me
think about the rumored bomb sniffing dolphins.
I question the size and intention reported!
I seriously doubt that our missile crusiers are carrying nukes.
They would do an offload after deployment for the SM2's & Tomahawks,
but not for a single port visit.
So how in the world did they find them? Its not exactly a swimming area! Did they have a tip? The story is more amazing for what it leaves unsaid than what it says.
yeah, the Starbucks thing. How did that turn out - do you know?
Coming up next on...THE O.C. !
More info. and some answers to your questions:
Divers find explosives in canal near L.A.
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. -- Commercial-grade explosives discovered in a canal south of Los Angeles prompted authorities to ban cell phone use Wednesday to prevent accidental detonation.
Environmental divers hired to check on algae growth found the cigarette-sized blasting caps late Tuesday in a canal lined with homes off of Huntington Beach harbor.
All seven of the volatile explosives, which often are used to trigger larger explosions, were retrieved from the canal, said Jim Amormino, spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
"We feel confident that we found all of them," Amormino said.
There was no evidence of explosives stronger than the caps, which could cause an explosion equivalent to a hand grenade, Amormino said. Cell phones were banned for several hundred feet surrounding the shoreline because their signals could detonate caps, he said.
"They are very unstable in salt water. They do pose a threat to the divers, any swimmers, any boaters in the area," Amormino said. Nearby homes and large yachts docked in the exclusive area were not threatened, he said.
Authorities did not know why the explosives had been placed there, but said terrorism was not suspected.
"They were probably tossed. I doubt if they were purposely strategically placed," Amormino said.
Corrosion on brightly colored wires attached to the explosives led investigators to believe they ended up there sometime in the past two days, Amormino said. A diver would have been able to see the wires from a distance, he added.
Officials think it's unlikely the explosives are from the nearby Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Explosives_Found.html
Here is one that has it:
Wired blasting caps found in Huntington Beach harbor
"The explosives were described as commercial grade detonators used to trigger large explosions in mines or other sites and were considered highly unstable, Amormino said in telephone interviews.
They were about the size of a cigarette and were spread over a 150-yard area beneath nine to 15 feet of water in Long Canal, he said.
Each cap was attached to a 10-foot-long, brightly colored wire and the caps appeared to have been placed in the canal within the last 36 hours, Amormino said.
Also:
"Amormino said investigators believe the caps were placed in the water sometime in the past two days based on the corrosion on the wires. The wires were colored bright orange and bright green, and would be visible from a distance to a diver in the area, he said."
Makes one wonder if they were going to bring the large explosives later on.
It was just a wiring malfunction in the airplane's fuel tank that caused the explosion, nothing to see here. Oops, wrong terrorist coverup. (/sarcasm)
Long Beach Naval Shipyard closed years ago in an early round of base closings. The closest large military base to Huntington Beach is Camp Pendelton.
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