Dynamite Scare a False Alarm

About 1,500 people, including elementary school children, were evacuated from a Costa Mesa neighborhood Monday after authorities feared that 50 pounds of old and unstable dynamite was stored in a backyard storage shed.

Authorities cleared a four-square-mile area, including Whittier Elementary School, only to discover that a box labeled “Trojan Explosives 50 lbs.” was empty.

“It was a major inconvenience to many people,” said police Lt. John Fitzpatrick at 7 p.m., six hours after authorities ordered the evacuation.

Earlier, Fitzpatrick relayed information about the danger at 1010 18th St. from the Orange County Sheriff’s Bomb Squad to reporters at the scene.

Bomb squad technicians estimated that the explosives were 20 to 25 years old, Fitzpatrick said. He said nitroglycerin had leaked through the dynamite’s paper covering to form crystals on the box.

The crystals, Fitzpatrick said at the time, “are very sensitive to heat, shock or friction,” making the dynamite very unstable and creating a situation so dangerous that bomb technicians would not benefit from wearing body armor.

After about three hours of preparation, the bomb squad injected acetone into the box to neutralize the dynamite sticks they believed were inside.

“They could tell by the way the liquid was sounding as it hit inside the box that the box was empty,” Fitzpatrick said.

The bomb squad was right in being very cautious because of the disturbing reports that investigators were getting about Robert Britt, the deceased owner of the house, Fitzpatrick said.

Britt, who was 74 when he died this year, was apparently a miner who used dynamite, Fitzpatrick said.

”. . . The history of the individual and the reports we were getting that he was a bit eccentric” were good-enough reasons to proceed with caution, he said.

Fitzpatrick said 75 officers provided security around the evacuated area. Paramedic crews and fire trucks were also on site.

The drama began about 1 p.m., when a handyman cleaning up the vacant and dilapidated house found the suspicious box and called police.

The man, who did not want to be identified, said he was cleaning the house for the owner because it was being sold.

The owner of the home could not be reached for comment.

Whittier Elementary School, less than a block away, was the first place ordered evacuated. School officials began calling parents to tell them to pick up their children.

Some worried parents said they were told only that there was an emergency and to come get their children.

“They didn’t give me any details. I thought that my son was injured,” said Teresa Perez, clutching her 7-year-old Carlos’ hand.

Mario A. Gonzalez said he was called at work and told to pick up his children, Mario Jr., 6, and Maria, 8.

“The only thing they said was that it was an emergency. I was afraid that there was something wrong with one of my kids. You don’t know the relief I felt when I saw them,” Gonzalez said.

Newport-Mesa Supt. Robert Barbot said fire officials notified the school district about 1 p.m. that dynamite had been discovered near the campus.

He said school officials called every parent they could reach to notify them of the emergency.

Children who would have stayed for the after-school program were taken to a site not far away--the Mesa Consolidated Water District headquarters on Placentia Avenue.

Hundreds of residents of apartments and homes in the area were also ordered to leave.

The neighborhood is also dotted with small businesses and light manufacturing companies.

Phil Jimenez, owner of the Pacific Bluff industrial center, behind the shed thought to contain the explosives, said police told him to tell his 72 business tenants to evacuate.

“Most of the businesses close at 5 o’clock, so it’s not a big inconvenience,” Jimenez said.

The evacuation was disruptive and stressful, but the outcome was preferable to any alternative, said police spokesman Fitzpatrick.

“Believe me, we didn’t enjoy this any more than anyone else,” he said.

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Contributing to this report were community correspondents Alex Katz and Alex Murashko and staff writer Jessica Garrison.

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Evacuation

A Costa Mesa neighborhood and elementary school were evacuated Monday when a box labeled dynamite was discovered by a handyman. The box was later found to be empty.