Found a Homemade bomb

[PWCPD Diver]

While on an operation yesterday looking for Civil War relics for the Prince William County Historical Society two of the Dive team members pulled up a "Ball Mason Jar". This was very black water and they thought it was "Civil War" related until the crime scene techs took it and opened it. Inside was about two-thirds gravel and a plastic baggie with "drano" and other ingrediants. It started working as soon as it hit the air. Apparently there wasn't enough air in the mason jar to set it off. It had been in the water for quite some time when the guys found it. It was disabled at the scene.

Most likely someone wanted to kill fish. Little did they know that it is a "dead" pond anyway.

So FYI be careful of "Mason Jars" and their contents!

Brian

 

[mike_s]

so what normally would have caused this to explode?

Drain-o mixing with the water in a confined space? If that was true, we'd have pipe exploding all over the place.

Or were the 'other indegredients' a factor?

 

[Kayla]

Sounds like there were other ingredients.

Good to know... thanks!

K

 

[grumpie]

By passing on this type of info, we can all learn from this group
grumpie.......

 

[PWCPD Diver]

It's called a "Drano" bomb. (edit)

 

[mike_s]

Interesting. So how long is the average "burn time" to take the draino to eat through the ziplock? (seconds? minutes? hours?

what type of accelerant is typically used?

 

[james croft]

I've run across the pipe bomb type before. Lots of them in the water.