Los Angeles bomb technicians miscalculated the weight of homemade fireworks when they detonated them last month, setting off an explosion that rocked a residential neighborhood and injured 17 people, officials said Monday.
Five members of the LAPD bomb squad have been removed from field duties and could face discipline as an investigation into the June 30 incident in South Los Angeles continues, police Chief Michel Moore said during a news conference. The explosion came after a day spent by the LAPD disposing of thousands of pounds of commercial fireworks inside a home after authorities received a tip bout the large cache.
Those fireworks were destroyed at another site. Also found at the home were homemade fireworks that were leaking, prompting the bomb squad to determine they were unsafe to move.
They examined them by X-ray and robotics and loaded them into the detonation chamber, officially called a total containment vessel.
Without using a scale, as is allowed by Los Angeles police procedures to avoid additional handling of the unstable devices, bomb technicians estimated the weight of the homemade explosives and a counter-charge to be about 16.5- READ MORE
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