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Trailers evacuated after blasting caps discovered in yard
PUKATAWAGAN -- Twenty trailers in a remote Manitoba First Nation community were evacuated Tuesday evening after a box containing 20 to 30 explosive blasting caps was reported in a person's yard, situated across from a playground.
After finding the blasting caps while cleaning an old commercial building, a man placed them in a box and brought them home, leaving them in his yard, according to Pukatawagan RCMP.
Around 7:15 p.m. Tuesday, the RCMP Pukatawagan detachment was notified of the blasting caps.
"One of our members was driving in the community when he was alerted to the fact that this person was wondering what to do with these blasting caps," said RCMP spokesperson Const. Line Karpish.
The responding RCMP member proceeded to secure the area with the help of the local fire department, evacuating 20 trailers on the street in the process.
"Our member consulted with the Explosive Disposal Unit, and they were able to move them to a secure compound away from public access," said Karpish.
The blasting caps stayed there overnight, before the Explosive Disposal Unit "flew out to properly dispose of the caps" Wednesday morning, Karpish said.
Karpish said it would not take much to set off the caps, and the Explosive Disposal Unit told RCMP members to turn their radios off when dealing with them in order to avoid an explosion from exposure to electrical current. A "safe" distance from the caps is five to ten feet, but Karpish said they have the power to produce "a good boom."
"If they were to explode in someone’s hand it could certainly cause tissue damage," Karpish said. "Depending where it is, it could be as bad as blowing off the tip of a finger."
Karpish explained this was not the first time someone has found explosives and carried them around.
"It is not atypical for members of the public to find things and pick them up," she said. "There was an incident in Portage la Prairie where someone brought an explosive to the desk of the RCMP detachment, and we had to evacuate."
Pukatawagan is located around 800 kilometres north of Winnipeg.
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