EPA Urges Public to Turn In Munitions
- Thread starter cuchulainn
- Start date
- Status
Cosmoline,
No offense intended, but you're wrong and you're giving dangerous advice to people. My company does work on these type sites. Every piece of suspected UXO we encounter is treated as if it could detonate at any moment. If a civilian encounters any piece of suspect UXO it's an emergency because someone could handle it in such a way as to cause it to go detonate/burn. Call 911, tell them you think you've found a piece of unexploded ordinance, get out and wait.
No offense intended, but you're wrong and you're giving dangerous advice to people. My company does work on these type sites. Every piece of suspected UXO we encounter is treated as if it could detonate at any moment. If a civilian encounters any piece of suspect UXO it's an emergency because someone could handle it in such a way as to cause it to go detonate/burn. Call 911, tell them you think you've found a piece of unexploded ordinance, get out and wait.
Cosmoline
Member
Best case scenario from calling 911 is the bomb squad treats it as they would a terrorist's bomb and sends in the robots to blow it up in your home or office, then bring charges against you for keeping it. They are not usually experts on dealing with old live ordinance. Just calm down, leave it lie and see who in your area specializes in dealing with old ordinance. In the case I know of it was a special air force unit. They were able to safely transport the 1890's vintage shell away from town, destroy the detonator and remove the explosive. They knew how the shell operated and were able to make a realistic conclusion about its potential threat, rather than freaking out.
When you call 911 and say you HAVE A BOMB(!!!!), you're unleashing the hounds and spreading red meat around for them. That number is only supposed to be used in active emergencies Like when someone is holding a live shell to rob a bank. Not when you realize the shell that's been on your bookshelf for ten years might possibly still be live ordinance. Unless your local authorities have instructed people to call 911 for old ordinance, I would not advise calling it up and saying you have a bomb.
Well, does your company call 911 everytime you encounter the ordinance?
When you call 911 and say you HAVE A BOMB(!!!!), you're unleashing the hounds and spreading red meat around for them. That number is only supposed to be used in active emergencies Like when someone is holding a live shell to rob a bank. Not when you realize the shell that's been on your bookshelf for ten years might possibly still be live ordinance. Unless your local authorities have instructed people to call 911 for old ordinance, I would not advise calling it up and saying you have a bomb.
Well, does your company call 911 everytime you encounter the ordinance?
Wow, my family had to deal with this twice, both times in a residence. 1st time us kids found a couple live tank shells in the garage from the former owner. Second time was the cop we purchased the hosue from left a ton of ammo there. Both times they were dealt with sanely. The tank shells were babysat by an officer until the ordnance disposal guys from the army came. The ammo was simply removed form the premises at my parents request.
Unless you are an idiot, you don't call up and say "I HAVE A BOMB." You call up and say you found something that looks like an old shell/missle/giant bullet, etc. I suspect that if you live someplace you are likely to find ordnance lying around, the cops have had some experience with it (instance 1 was near picatinny arsenal, instance 2 was near a county college that had been built over an ordnacne dump of some sort).
Cosmoline
Member
Right, you call up the regular office line and tell them directly. If you call up the 911 service, you run the very real risk that some numbskull 911 operator will transform your message into a full scale bomb scare alert. So you tell them you have an old shell and she tells dispatch that you have a live bomb. Better assume the position and get ready to have a knee on the back of your head.
:banghead:
We perform environmental work on old military/munitions sites. We plan our work and plan for chance of encountering these old munitions. Part of that planning is that we have UXO/EOD contacts for those sites. Since they're known sites and we've planned for the potential, we have the telephone numbers of the UXO folks at the sites. We id something suspicious, we fall back, we call the UXO folks.
I we encounter something that looks like UXO in an area that isn't a gov facility then we fall back a safe distance and call 911.
It's happened twice in 10 years for us and in both cases the cops sent an officer out, our field crew explained the situation, the officer called it back in and he set up a perimeter. In one case the local bomb squad guys showed up and put the thing in a UXO carrier and took it away to blow it and in the other they had to have a military unit come in and get it.
DRZinn
Member
Bear, what are your feelings on grenade simulators?
Jay Kominek
Member
The regular office line that is probably just as capable of telling dispatch something stupid.
Dispatching that you have a live bomb is reasonable. It gets the bomb disposal folks there. The only problem is if she tells the responding officer that you're threatening, which doesn't seem likely to happen so long as you avoid sounding like an idiot.
Do Not Eff with UXO
I am not an EOD guy, but I did some demo training while in the service.
That training & some of my experience before the service has given me a healthy respect for explosives & UXO.
If I see UXO, I will call 911, posthaste, & keep anyone from effing with it until the cavalry arrives.
I am not an EOD guy, but I did some demo training while in the service.
That training & some of my experience before the service has given me a healthy respect for explosives & UXO.
If I see UXO, I will call 911, posthaste, & keep anyone from effing with it until the cavalry arrives.
- Status