Practice Bomb Safely Removed From Tierrasanta Canyon

A practice bomb was found in Tierrasanta on Sunday but was removed without incident by San Diego firefighters, a Fire Department spokeswoman said.

The Korean War-vintage, 3-pound Naval aerial practice bomb was found by a man at about 3 p.m. in an open area near the eastern end of Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, the fire spokeswoman said.

The bomb contained about 2 ounces of a pyrotechnic substance, giving it enough explosive power to perhaps blow off a person’s hand if it had detonated while being handled, according to the Fire Department. Firefighters turned the device over to the military, and the area where it was found was cordoned off.

The area where the bomb was found Sunday is about one mile from a canyon where two 8-year-old boys were killed in December, 1983, by the explosion of an artillery shell that they found while playing. Since that tragedy, military sweeps of canyons and open space have turned up numerous pieces of unexploded ordnance in Tierrasanta, a 2,600-acre planned community built on the site of a former Camp Elliot Marine Corps artillery range.