WWII bomb explodes!

[m4star]

Has anyone else heard this on the news today? I'm just stunned that it's how many years after WWII and Austria has waited until now to remove those old bombs! Just think, while I was walking around Salzburg being happy as a clam I could have been blown up at any minute. :eek:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=518&ncid=732&e=3&u=/ap/20030717/ap_on_re_eu/austria_wwii_bomb

[Beth H]

This is actually more of an issue than you might think. A nice subdivision in the city where I live was built on part of an old bombing range for a major Army installation. Periodically, someone finds an old bomb (unexploded) in his or her backyard. When they renovated the SC Statehouse a few years back, they found some cannons from the Civil War that had never exploded! The bomb squad was called out to remove them.

So - while rare, this definitely can happen!

[sunberst]

Originally posted by Beth H
Periodically, someone finds an old bomb (unexploded) in his or her backyard.that is crazy. i would have never guessed.

[Pico]

Gee, some Civil War troops camped in my backyard. Do you think... nah, I doubt it. :rolleyes: :)

[mbrogier]

A blasting crew that was working on Wade Hampton Blvd in Greenville, SC left a box of dynamite by the side of the road. 40 years later, some guy walking down the road saw the box and kicked it. The box disentigrated, but he recognized what was inside. The bomb squad couldn't believe he didn't blow himself up. Old munitions are not as stable as modern ones---nitroglycerine tends to break down.

I had heard about the SC statehouse discovery, but I didn't know about the ammunition range that was now a subdivision. :rolleyes:

[AndreaU]

This actually happens around here once in a while when the weather gets really hot- West Point is not too far away and on occasion they've had to close down certain nearby hiking trails and training areas because unexploded shells tend to just go off. Nothing as major as a whole bomb, but scary nonetheless.