New video shows explosions, fire caused by old dynamite detonations in Utah
By Melanie Porter, Amy Nay
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HOLLADAY, Utah (KSTU) — Nearly one week after officials detonated old dynamite found in a Holladay home in an explosion that could be heard and seen for miles, newly released videos show exactly what happened behind the boom.
“There is no way that was three sticks of dynamite,” one responder was heard saying after the second detonation.
On Tuesday morning, Teri Wojcik called in officials for help when she found chemicals in the basement of her home.
She began cleaning out the area after her husband’s passing, a retired chemist at the University of Utah.
When officials began looking into the basement, they found two cases of unstable dynamite and expanded the response to the bomb squad.
Wojcik said her husband inherited the dynamite from his father when he died four decades ago.
After finding the explosives, officials determined they were too unstable to move and had to be detonated inside the home.
What commenced were hours of evacuations in the middle of the night, while Wojcik was given time to gather irreplaceable belongings and say goodbye to the home.
“We haven’t seen a lot of calls like this to this magnitude,” said Unified Fire Department Assistant Chief Riley Pilgrim.
But it was a call, he added, that they were happy the homeowner made.
“The best thing to do is get professionals in there to take care of it,” he said.
For the next 20 hours or so, they evacuated the neighborhood, used a robot to move some of the materials, and then performed a controlled detonation, causing a huge explosion that could be seen and heard from miles away. The blast completely leveled Wojcik’s home. It also blew out windows and caused damage to homes throughout the surrounding area.
“It’s not just an A-to-B decision. There’s a lot of different factors we had to consider,” Pilgrim said. “All of us on site felt like this was the best course of action.”
He said there were also flammable chemicals on the property and other hazardous materials to handle.
“The risk to the public was the priority, and the timeline was as quick as we can get this done, but safely,” Pilgrim said. “We had dozens of responders there during the duration of that incident, and no injuries to us [or] the public, and that was honestly the best outcome we could have asked for.”
Video from after the detonations shows just how devastating the explosion was, with the home completely flattened and deemed “uninhabitable” by authorities.
Now, Wojcik is working to rebuild her life with relatively nothing, saying the large incident “wasn’t intended” and thanking the community for their support.
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