Bombs made from fireworks gunpowder a danger - expert

2:50pm

Bomb disposal experts today warned parents to watch for children making potentially fatal bombs with gunpowder from unused fireworks.

Major Dave Buck, head of the army's bomb disposal squad, said Guy Fawkes night always brought a rash of calls about bombs made from internet recipes.

Two years ago a Wanganui teenager died when a home-made bomb blew his left hand off and shrapnel sliced through the femoral artery in his leg. Gunpowder had been packed into a small gas canister and a detonator attached.

Major Buck said many children swapped recipes from the internet and pulled fireworks apart to make the bombs.

"I have already had a call from a man who said he had found his son taking the fireworks apart and collecting the gunpowder. He wanted to know how to dispose of it."

Major Buck said the best method of disposal was to flush the gunpowder down the toilet or spread it very thinly on the ground and burn it. He said the army bomb squad had modified its bomb suits by adding a steel visor to deal with dangerous home made pipe bombs. If a pipe bomb exploded it was like a grenade.

"We have got kids filling pipes with gunpowder and then hammering the ends closed. As soon as you start doing that you are in very great danger of it exploding in your hands."

Major Buck warned parents to destroy unused fireworks or lock them away to stop children making bombs.

Many of the internet recipes often missed vital ingredients or methods such as keeping the ingredients at a constant temperature which made them very dangerous.

Meanwhile, fire communications centres reported one of the quietest Guy Fawkes night ever last night.

- NZPA