Man’s Hand Blown Off by Stick of Dynamite

A 19-year-old Reseda man’s hand was blown off early Friday after he lit a stick of dynamite to celebrate Independence Day, forcing a two-block section of his neighborhood to be evacuated for about four hours while police searched for more explosives he had hidden in his family’s garage.

Chris Sterline was in stable condition at Northridge Hospital Medical Center Friday afternoon. No one else was hurt in the 2:20 a.m. blast, which dislodged concrete in a driveway in the 7400 block of Wystone Avenue.

Bomb squad officers found about five sticks of dynamite in the Sterline family garage and detonated them without incident, Pixler said. Sterline told investigators that he found the dynamite about a year ago at a construction site and hid it in the garage without his family’s knowledge, she said.