Before members of the LAPD bomb squad destroyed part of a South L.A. neighborhood by exploding a stash of illegal fireworks last summer, they repeatedly ignored warnings from one of their most experienced technicians that the plan was not safe, according to a new report by the LAPD’s inspector general.
The member who raised concerns, identified only as “Bomb Technician C,” told investigators with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that he had flagged both the volume and weight of fireworks being placed into the LAPD’s “total containment vessel,” or “TCV,” as excessive and too powerful for the vessel to control all at once.
“Based on my experience and everything, I said, uh, this is too much to do one shot, we’re gonna break them up, right?” the technician recalled saying to a colleague.
He said his colleagues and his supervisor told him that he was wrong and that he should “relax,” and the fireworks were loaded into the vessel all at once anyway, the inspector general found.
Read the full story on LATimes.com.