BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (WTVG) - A loud explosion in the city of Bowling Green Friday night prompted police to investigate, eventually calling the Toledo Bomb Squad to assist.
“A very loud like pop, clap, bang, and it startled me,” Shana Bentley, who lives just a few houses from the explosion said. Bldc Motor 12v
The explosion happened in the 200 block of East Reed, it had neighbors shaking. Bentley was just finishing up washing her dishes around 7 p.m.
“I definitely jumped, and tried to figure out what the heck was that,” Bentley said.
Lt. Adam Skaff, with the Bowling Green Police Division, said his department received a call right after the explosion occurred.
“Our dispatch center referenced a call of a possible explosion, the 200 block of Leroy, or that was where the call was from, it was a little after 7 p.m. on Friday evening, so officers responded out to that location, didn’t initially locate anything,” Skaff said.
On Saturday morning, police obtained security footage from a local resident, whose house along Leroy faces a back alley where the explosion came from. Police were able to ID the back driveway.
“Remnants of a possible explosion in the alley of the 200 block of east Reed,” Skaff said.
Police contacted another witness who told them someone they knew had been setting off homemade fireworks on Friday night.
“And that one of them had malfunctioned, and that’s likely the source of the explosion we were referring to,” Skaff added.
Police interviewed a resident in the 200 block of Reed Street, where they believed the explosion came from.
“He has an infinite and interest in mixing different chemicals and powders and stuff like that to make homemade explosives, slash, fireworks,” Skaff said. He also told police he just passed an online class for a pyrotechnics license and has been using a detached garage to mix powder chemicals together to form an explosive compound in a blender.
Lt. Skaff said the man was using a blender to mix components to build fireworks. He told police he was mixing the powder chemicals together to make the explosive compound in his blender as he always does. He also told police that he ran out of standard aluminum powder, so he decided to use Magnalium instead, a mixture of aluminum and magnesium. He went on to tell police that when plugged in the blender, it immediately exploded.
“Thankfully for him and the citizens, there was no one in the area, he was a decent distance away when the blender exploded,” Skaff said.
After that conversation, BG police called the Toledo Bomb Squad for assistance, with consent from the resident to remove the explosives from the home.
“At that time, we also checked to ensure that there wasn’t something more nefarious, you know like things being added to the explosives, and they took some unexploded devices out to an outdoor range and were able to dispose of them that time properly,” Skaff said.
Lt. Skaff also added this case is still under investigation and will be referred to the Wood County prosecutor’s office.
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