Explosives Dropped Off At San Jose Fire Station Prompt Evacuation
SAN JOSE (CBS SF) -- The San Jose Police Bomb Squad was called to a fire station after a man dropped off explosive materials.
According to fire officials, the man found gunpowder and shotgun caps for the purpose of making shotgun shells in his storage locker in two milk-crate sized boxes and brought them to Fire Station 11 located at 2840 Villages Parkway around 9:40 a.m. Tuesday morning.
At first glance, fire officials thought that the man had brought in blasting caps and black powder used in mining. Due to the possible explosive nature of those items, the San Jose bomb squad was called in.
San Jose Fire went door-to-door, asking families within 300 feet of the station to evacuate their homes.
A captain with San Jose Fire said the person was cleaning out a storage unit when they found the boxes with what they thought was questionable material and didn't know how to properly dispose of them.
Other residents were advised to shelter-in-place.
"They were cleaning out an old storage unit found this product and was like, 'That doesn't look safe,' and brought it, I think appropriately, to the fire station," said San Jose Fire Department Capt. Mike Van Elgort. "We would ask people in the future to not transport that material, to basically call us to the scene then we can evaluate it there."
At about 10:50 a.m. the evacuation order was lifted. There were no injuries to report, according to San Jose Fire.
