UPDATE @ 6:53 p.m.: The first attempt to destroy the old dynamite by burning it did not go off as planned and a second attempt is being made.
UPDATE @ 5:50 p.m.: The plan is to put what amounts to 10 sticks of dynamite in a hole, put straw over it, pour diesel fuel on it and set it on fire, Spring Valley Twp. Fire Chief Marvin Moeller said.
“Hopefully it don’t blow up,” he said.
The Dayton Bomb Squad and Moeller’s fire crew will do the same with the “well over 500 blasting caps” that have been found as well in a barn at the soybean farm.
There will be separate holes dug, but the destruction zone will be a large field across from the main house on the farm.
State Route 380 is being shut down because of the potential blast radius, Moeller said, because “if it does blow up, it could be a pretty good size explosion.”
A farmer found the deteriorating dynamite in a barn while cleaning it out. The farmer pulled it out and put it on a trailer.
Moeller said the farm is a former excavating company and the explosives are being discovered as farm workers go through barns on the property. The blasting caps were kept in a locked metal cabinet, in another barn, he said.
“They took all the precaution in the world when they had the stuff here, to make sure nobody ever got into it,” the chief said.
He said the dynamite is so old it has come out of its cylindrical containers. “It’s really large flakes. Paper and nitroglycerin.
“You can’t separate it. You can’t touch it. You walk up to it (on the trailer where it sits), you can smell the nitroglycerin coming off of it. It’s that deteriorated.”
UPDATE @ 4:48 p.m.: A "significant amount" of deteriorating dynamite has been found in a barn on a soybean farm in the 2100 block of state Route 380 and the operation to remove it and detonate it is expected to take six to eight hours, Spring Valley Twp. Fire Chief Marvin Moeller said.
When the Dayton Bomb Squad arrives, the plan is to have holes dug in a field across the road from the main house on the property, bury the dynamite (which is in stick form) and destroy it, Moeller said.
FIRST REPORT
The Dayton Bomb Squad has been called after some old dynamite and blasting caps were discovered in the Spring Valley area of Greene County.
Bomb squad officers are on scene in the 2100 block of Ohio 380, according to the Montgomery County Regional Dispatch Center.
The initial report indicates that deteriorated TNT and a cache of blasting caps need to be disposed of, according to the dispatch sergeant.
The initial call occurred at 1:40 p.m., according to the Greene County Emergency Dispatch Center.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
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