The La Plata County Sheriff’s Office is cautioning people who find explosives to not touch them after an incident over the weekend.
The advisory was issued Monday after nine sticks of unstable dynamite and blasting caps were found in a shed at Junction Creek Mobile Home Park on County Road 204 (Junction Creek Road) on Sunday afternoon.
The explosives may have been more than 30 years old and belonged to a man, now deceased, who was involved with mining decades ago, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office. No one was aware the items were in a shed until they were discovered Sunday.
The Farmington Police Department’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal team removed the dynamite and blasting caps and transported them to New Mexico for disposal. The EOD team responds throughout the Four Corners to similar incidents involving dangerous explosives.
Dan Bender, public-information officer for La Plata County Sheriff’s Office, said in a the news release that such discoveries are not uncommon in Southwest Colorado where explosives have been used in mining, agriculture, construction and avalanche control for more than 100 years.
“I remember several years ago when a woman called to say she believed her deceased uncle may have left some dynamite in a shed in Animas Canyon,” Bender said. “When we opened the shed, we found over 1,200 sticks of dynamite with manufacture dates of 1954. The nitroglycerin had leaked out and crystallized on the cases.”
The explosives had to be detonated in place, blowing out windows in a cabin a half mile away. The shed – constructed of railroad ties – was vaporized.
Bender said Sunday’s incident was just one of several that occurs periodically. Blasting caps, military explosives dating to World War II, dynamite and other explosives have been found by renters and new property owners as they clean out dwellings and out-buildings. Hikers have found unexploded orange and red avalanche-control devices, stuffed them in their backpacks and walked down the trail unaware they were carrying live explosives on their backs.
Bender said in one such case, the explosive sat on a shelf for a time in the hiker’s house. In another incident, a hiker brought an explosive to a local dispatch center and left it. Bender said areas where avalanche control is done are well marked with bright signs warning people to not pick up such devices.
Anyone who finds items they suspect might be explosives should take the following steps:
1) Do not touch or move the item(s).
2) Leave the immediate area.
3) Call their local emergency dispatch center.
johnp@durangoherald.com
