2 Small Acid Bombs Found at High School

Two small, homemade chemical bombs, one of them already detonated, were found Monday along the running track at Huntington Beach High School, marking the second time in a month that school custodians have discovered small explosive devices on campus.

There were no injuries or arrests. The devices--crafted from two-liter soda bottles filled with volatile chemicals, probably muriatic acid--were far from classrooms and open-air corridors but posed a threat to passersby, police said.

“Acid bombs are very hazardous and not very stable,” said Lt. Ron Wilkerson of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. “When you make one, you’re just as likely to injure yourself as anyone else.”

Police blocked off streets near the school, and the Orange County Sheriff’s bomb squad and the Huntington Beach Fire Department’s hazardous-materials team were called to handle the devices. The bomb squad used a remote-controlled robot to puncture the undetonated bomb, and fragments of both devices were collected for evidence, police said.

A custodian discovered the two bottle bombs about 8:20 a.m. in the grassy perimeter of the school’s track, just yards from Main Street and across the street from the city’s police station.

School employees had been alerted about a similar device that detonated inside a campus garbage can two weeks ago, and police recently trained school staff how to recognize such devices, Huntington Beach Police Sgt. J.B. Hume said.

“This was a pretty heads-up custodian; he was alert enough to see this and recognize it so the school could alert us,” Hume said. “Everybody did the right thing. It was picture-perfect.”

The bottle bomb that apparently detonated during the early morning showed the pressure and heat generated by the chemicals inside: The bottle remains were pitted and jagged and the chemical contents had splashed about 40 feet, police said.

“If someone, the custodian or someone using the track, had been nearby, there certainly would have been a hazard,” Hume said.

The second device, detonated by the bomb squad robot, emitted a loud pop, but no real explosive force.

Acid bombs are frequently made by young pranksters unaware of the potential risks, Wilkerson said. Besides physical danger, bomb-makers also can face felony charges of possession of bomb materials.

Six juveniles were arrested March 17 on those charges in San Clemente after exploding homemade acid bombs in a field, Wilkerson said.