Backpack of 'volatile' explosives found under OC bridge

Screenshot via NBC LA

Orange County workers discovered a backpack containing grenades and other explosive devices near the intersection of Orangethorpe and Lakeview avenues in Placentia.

A backpack packing a number of explosive devices was found Monday in a storm channel under a bridge near Anaheim. Orange County bomb squad investigators detonated the hand grenades about 1:15 p.m. in a containment vessel, and the rest of the explosives were boomed about 2:45 p.m. in a larger open-air trailer, Orange County sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said.

The bag, found by a county work crew in a drainage ditch near Orangethorpe and Lakeview Avenues, contained six grenades, a number of blasting caps, canisters, fuse ignitors, black powder, white powder and other items.

Amormino told KPCC's Rob Strauss that the longer the bag sits, the more unstable it becomes.

"[The explosives are] all located in this backpack, which has been there for a while. We can tell by the deteriorating condition of the backpack. But because they have been there for a while, makes them even more volatile."

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