It’s not every day Explosives Ordnance Disposal Detachment Northwest gets called to south Whidbey Island for a “two-fer” but Nov. 10 wasn’t just any day.  At about 10 a.m. the Island County Sheriff called to request EOD’s assistance in disposing of some dynamite discovered by a woman walking in the woods. The dynamite was in an old metal ammunition container tucked into a tree stump on private property near Langley, Wash.

Once on site, the 7-member team from NAS Whidbey Island assessed the situation.  First thing they determined was the approximately 20 pounds of dynamite was old and had probably been used to remove tree stumps when the property was originally cleared. The nitroglycerine-based product had oozed out of its paper wrappers and crystallized. Old or not, it was definitely unstable and not something that would be safe to transport to another location for disposal.

Initially EOD thought the best way to dispose of it would be to blow it up. Based on that decision, local authorities put out a 9-1-1 alert that people within a 5-mile radius might hear a loud explosion. Since EOD couldn’t guarantee the explosive’s concussive impact wouldn’t damage nearby homes, they decided to burn it and carefully walked the ammo can about 100 yards away from the property owner’s home.

The very helpful homeowner hauled out his backhoe, dug a hole about five feet deep, headed home to open all his windows and doors on that cold afternoon, and left the area for the next three hours. EOD got to work disposing of the explosive by burning it. According to Lt. Mike Hodges, EOD Det NW officer in charge, there was a chance the dynamite would detonate but luckily it didn’t. 

“The lady who found the dynamite should definitely go buy lottery tickets,” said Hodges,. “She was very lucky. We always advise people to leave explosives where they find them and call us.”

By 4 o’clock the fire had burned down and the team was ready to head back to Oak Harbor when the same sheriff from Island County called and asked them to come over to South Whidbey High School. A school janitor had found a homemade firecracker during his rounds.

Once on scene, EOD placed the recently made firecracker in a heavy metal canister constructed to absorb the shock of an explosion and transported it back to the command. Rather than detonating it, the team will deconstruct it, looking for clues and collecting evidence to determine who built it and put the lives of students, teachers and staff in danger.

Located on the Seaplane Base, EOD Det NW is an operational shore detachment that responds to emergencies throughout Commander, Navy Region Northwest’s area of responsibility. They are trained and equipped to render safe all types of explosive hazards to include conventional, chemical, biological, and nuclear ordnance, improvised explosive devices and weapons of mass destruction; neutralizing hazards to personnel and property on land and underwater.