By Paul Ploumis (ScrapMonster Author)
October 15, 2015 08:37:10 AM
The Police incident report on the deadly bomb explosion at Tucson Iron & Metal on Sep 23rd has been released.Police incident report on Tucson scrap yard explosion released
TEMPE (Scrap Monster): The Tucson Police Department has released the incident report on the deadly scrap yard explosion at Tucson Iron & Metal during September this year. The explosion happened when an employee of the scrap yard located in 690 E. 36th St, Tucson tried to cut a highly explosive “Mark 82” bomb, which exploded. The 46-year old employee, Daniel Wright, had died on the spot.

According to the incident report, one of the witnesses who were working with Wright, stated that they were involved in the job of separating metal in the yard area. It was then that they came across a material that appeared to be a bomb. The witness warned Wright that it is not a good idea to cut into it.

However, after seeing the material from outside, Wright believed that it was hollow. The witness then left the site to do some other work, after telling Wright not to cut into it. Soon an explosion was heard and Wright was seen on fire. Another employee who checked Wright’s pulse confirmed that he was dead. Firefighters who rushed to the scene found a hole in his chest almost to the size of volleyball. According to the witness, Wright being a cutter might have cut into the bomb with a torch, which led to the explosion.

The report further states that the employees had never received any on-site training on identifying ordnance. Neither were they provided awareness on the safety precautions to be followed when handling such materials.

It is still unknown as to how the bomb, usually used by the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy for tactical and training applications, ended up in the scrap yard.