Asheville, N.C.-On March 29 the Asheville police bomb squad had to move dynamite and explosive grade-ammonium nitrate from a container in which it had been stored for years into a vacant field on a Madison County farm, where it was intentionally exploded. Even so, reported Bomb Squad Commander Lt. Wally Welch, the explosion resulted in a surprising force that broke windows and tore siding off the porch of the nearby farm house. “I can’t say for sure how long it had been there,” Welch told Green Markets. “But over time the dynamite on top of the ammonium nitrate had leached and turned it into a big ugly mass of explosives.” He said he’d been doing this type of work for 10 years and this one was by far his biggest explosion. Welch and his fellow officer started with some 148 sticks of dynamite and several pounds of AN stored in a large bucket in a barn. The cache was divided into two holes. One was detonated with cast booster and the other with C4 and detonating chord. The result was a crater about eight feet deep and about 30 feet wide. “I didn’t realize the extent of the nitro leaching into the ammonium nitrate. But clearly it did, and I got a much bigger bang than I expected. In fact, it’s probably the largest hole I’ve ever made.” Welch said the first choice would have been to burn the material, but a steady rain eliminated that choice. He and his associate were called to the farm after the owner, whose father had spent 46 years blasting rock for the state, discovered the explosives and alerted the Madison County sheriff.
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