Thread: 6 MILLION pounds of explosives found in LA.

Police launch criminal probe of explosives company after 6 million pounds of illegally stored explosive material found

Published December 03, 2012
Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS – State police say they have begun a criminal investigation of a northwestern Louisiana company after finding about 6 million pounds of explosive material stored illegally on the site of a former Army munitions plant.

Boxes and small barrels of the M6 artillery propellant were found both outdoors and crammed into unauthorized buildings located at Camp Minden, the former Louisiana Army Ammunitions Plant, said Col. Mike Edmonson, state police superintendent.

He said the evacuation of the nearby town of Doyline, about 270 miles northwest of New Orleans, could extend past Tuesday. About half the town's 800 residents left Friday.

Boxes of propellant pellets were piled and packed in unauthorized buildings at Explo Systems Inc., and some were spilling, Edmonson said. The company's "careless and reckless disregard made it unsafe for their own employees, for schoolchildren in Doyline, for the town of Doyline," he said.

The company is located on a portion of the former plant's 15,000 acres that is leased for commercial use. Other sections are used for National Guard training.

Capt. Doug Cain, a state police spokesman, identified the product as M6 propellant, used in howitzers and other artillery. The pellets are largely compressed nitrocellulose, also known as guncotton.

Police had estimated the total at 1 million tons after an investigator looking into an Oct. 15 explosion at Explo Systems Inc. saw cardboard boxes on long rows of pallets behind a building.

They found more stacked in sheds and warehouses when crews returned Saturday to begin moving the boxes into bunkers about two miles away on the former munitions site, which covers nearly 23.5 square miles just north of Doyline.

"It wasn't in their storage magazines. They had it hidden on the property, away from the storage magazines where we would expect to find it," Cain said.
Edmonson said, "It was stuffed in corners. It was stacked all over."

He said that in two days, crews have moved just under a million pounds from the tightest-packed buildings into approved containers and onto 27 tractor-trailers to move to storage bunkers. Another 250,000 pounds has been moved a safe distance from the bulk of the material.

It won't all have to be moved into bunkers to let people return home -- the evacuation could be lifted once the propellant is divided into amounts that won't threaten the town if some ignites, with each area a safe distance from the others, Edmonson said.

Company officials could not be reached Sunday. The owners reportedly are returning Monday from a business trip to South Korea, but the manager has been working with state police from the start, Edmonson said.




Police launch criminal probe of explosives company after 6 million pounds of illegally stored explosive material found | Fox News

APNewsBreak: License suspended for La. company accused of improperly storing explosives

Published May 20, 2013
Associated Press

JACKSON, Miss. – Authorities have suspended the explosives licenses of a company accused of improperly storing millions of pounds of a military propellant in Louisiana.

Explo System was blamed for the evacuation of Doyline, La., last year after an explosion.

Louisiana State Police spokesman Julie Lewis says the company's state explosives licenses will remain in revocation pending civil and criminal investigations.

Explo Systems had a multimillion-dollar military contract to dismantle the propellant stockpile.

Millions of pounds of a propellant called M6 was discovered haphazardly stored. Some was in boxes outside at Camp Minden, a Louisiana National Guard base.

Lewis says more than 10 million pounds of the material has now been moved to proper storage magazines, sometimes called bunkers, and Explo relinquished its keys to the magazines.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/05/20...#ixzz2TsBVWSRJ

La. company, managers indicted in explosives case


Posted: Jun 10, 2013 2:52 PM PDT <em class="wnDate">Monday, June 10, 2013 5:52 PM EST</em>Updated: Jun 10, 2013 2:52 PM PDT <em class="wnDate">Monday, June 10, 2013 5:52 PM EST</em> By JEFF AMY and HOLBROOK MOHR
Associated Press

Louisiana authorities have indicted Explo Systems Inc. and six unnamed owners and managers on charges relating to improper storage of millions of pounds of explosive military propellant.
Webster Parish District Attorney Schuyler Marvin says the employees face 10 felony charges in an indictment handed down Monday by a grand jury. The workers have not been identified because the indictment is still sealed.
Louisiana State Police officials stripped Explo Systems of its explosives license May 20. The company sued Friday to get it back.
Explo Systems had a multimillion-dollar military contract to dismantle propelling charges used to fire artillery rounds.
The company leased space at Camp Minden, a Louisiana National Guard installation. An investigation found millions of pounds of improperly stored propellant, leading to evacuation of nearby Doyline, La., last winter.

http://www.wflx.com/story/22553047/la-company-managers-indicted-in-explosives-case