Exploding ammunition injures Ventura teacher

[CZRyan]

This was in todays paper. I thought you would like to see this.
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Exploding ammunition injures Ventura teacher

By John Scheibe, [email protected]
April 4, 2006

Part of a Ventura instructor's right hand was severed Monday afternoon after he struck an object on his classroom desk against an old 40 mm round of ammunition while teaching.

The accidental discharge also left Robert Colla with severe burns and minor shrapnel wounds to his forearms and torso, said Tom Weinell, a captain with the Ventura Fire Department.

No one else was injured in the explosion, even though there were 20 to 25 people in the classroom with Colla at the Ventura Adult Education Center on Valentine Road when the explosion occurred at 4:06 p.m.

Colla was taken to Ventura County Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition Monday evening.

"It was just a horrible accident," said Dennis Huston, who teaches computer design alongside Colla.

Huston said he had his back turned to Colla and was only about three feet away when he heard a loud bang.

He turned around to find Colla screaming, his right hand mangled.

The explosion sent shrapnel flying around the classroom, Huston said. One piece went into the ceiling, while another landed where a student would normally sit. Huston said the student was absent Monday.

Colla had found the 40 mm round while hunting years ago, Huston said. He used it as a paperweight and "obviously he didn't think the round was live," Huston said.

"He'd had it for years and years and nothing had happened before," Huston said. He described the round as about an inch-and-a-half wide and about five inches long.

The explosion also destroyed a computer keyboard, scattering some of the keys around Colla's desk.

Barry Tronstad, the center's director, said he didn't hear the explosion even though he was in the building at the time.

"I was alerted by the smoke alarm," Tronstad said.

The center is run by the Ventura Unified School District.
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Here is the link (I hope!)
http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/ve/article/0,1375,VCS_251_4594189,00.html

I hope he will be OK.

Makes me think about my navy round from the spanish/American war (a 40mm AP round, primer and powder removed but bullet still crimped to brass). It was sitting on my Grandparents window sill for as long as anyone can remember 60+ years.

 

[Thefabulousfink]

At first I thought that the story had confused a .40 S&W with a 40mm cannon round but is sound like It really was one

He described the round as about an inch-and-a-half wide and about five inches long.

I was likely an un-exploded projectile, and if so, this was one lucky teacher.

 

[HankB]

Since he survived . . . maybe it was only the fuze which went off?

 

[merk]

Thats what you get when you make assumptions on things that can easily kill\injure you.

 

[ball3006]

I suppose they will ban...

40mm cannon ammo from schools now.........chris3

 

[Manedwolf]

Yes, using old, unstable LIVE cannon rounds as a decor item is generally what we call a Bad Idea.

My first thought upon finding one would likely be "Hm, this is likely from WWII training, it's likely live and dangerous." Not "Ooo, paperweight!"

 

[Aguila Blanca]

This is what results when we raise entire generations of people to be so ignorant of firearms-related "stuff" that they don't know the difference between a "bullet" and a "cartridge" and a "shell." My immediate reaction would also be to assume it was live, or at least a potentially dangerous, unexploded dud. But someone who has seen countless references to cartridges as "bullets," up to and including movies showing an entire cartidge flying thought the air after having been fired from a gun, could (and obviously did) assume that the whole enchilada was just the "bullet."

Although it would have been less surprising from a social studies teacher than an industrial arts teacher. I somewhat stupidly, I guess, thought that industrial arts teachers have a better grasp on how things work than folks in other fields.

 

[Standing Wolf]

...there were 20 to 25 people in the classroom with Colla at the Ventura Adult Education Center...

Adult education, eh? Well, I'll tell you what: if that's adult and educational, I think I'll pass.

 

[220_Swift]

But someone who has seen countless references to cartridges as "bullets," up to and including movies showing an entire cartidge flying thought the air after having been fired from a gun, could (and obviously did) assume that the whole enchilada was just the "bullet."

The way I read the story, it was just the slug.

"He'd had it for years and years and nothing had happened before," Huston said. He described the round as about an inch-and-a-half wide and about five inches long.

A 40mm round is much longer than five inches.

 

[Thefabulousfink]

However the projectile would be about 5" and they often had explosive and incendiary rounds for those Bofors AA guns.

+1 Manedwolf

Just last week a man in my town found an un-exploded mortar round from the 1940's in a park by the river. He was looking for stuff w/ a metal detector, and as soon as he had uncovered enough of it to tell what it was he called the police (who then called the Air Force EOD). I guess we just grow 'em smarter up here

 

[HankB]

. . . the Ventura Adult Education Center . . .

Just had a thought . . . do they perchance have a "zero tolerance" weapons policy there? Would it cover military ordnance?

 

[kjeff50cal]

Here is a 40mm (M79 GL)

 

[Thefabulousfink]

That is true, the (unfired) 40mm grenade for the m-79 or m203 would be about the right size and just as volatile as a 40mm Bofors round. Does anyone know the dimensions of projectile part of the Bofors, I was just estimating before.

 

[cracked butt]

I would have thought that anyone over the age of 30 would know better not to strike the tip of an artillery shell after growing up watching Bugs Bunny inspecting shells with a hammer in the ammunition factory. He must have grown up watching public television instead of the real educational cartoons shown on network TV. Yeeesh

 

[KIDGLOCK]

Nothing ever happend before??? Good thing it didnt blow up twice.

 

[EddieCoyle]

Wow. Scary story. I'm going to have to double check my mortar round flyswatter, artillery shell footstool, and the kids' .50 BMG teething rings.

 

[Creeping Incrementalism]

um... dummy shells are painted blue, right?

Update, from FoxNews.com: "A teacher who kept a 40 mm shell on his desk as a paperweight blew off part of his hand when he apparently used the object to try to squash a bug, authorities say.... The teacher slammed the shell down in an attempt to kill something that was buzzing or crawling across the desk, said Fire Marshal Glen Albright."

And I agree with KJeff50Cal, this sounds like a 40mm grenade.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,190582,00.html

 

[Trebor]

um... dummy shells are painted blue, right?

Kind of. My understanding is that U.S. military ordance that is painted blue will not have an explosive component. However, it may have propellent, and would still be dangerous.

Any ordance guys out there who can clarify this?

 

[Manedwolf]

Near where I grew up, a few towns over had been a WWII naval aviation training base...so they'd occasionally dig up live ordnance or a rocket when building new houses. Bomb squad would be called, put it in the concrete thing on the truck, all that.

They were always disposed of properly, though. Nobody ever, to my knowledge, blew themselves up.

The worst I'd ever heard of (elsewhere) that thankfully didn't end badly was someone finding an aerial bomb in a backyard excavation. To show the police what it was, they "helpfully" unscrewed the spinner cap from its nose, thus ARMING it, and brought that to show the police. I'm sure the disposal squad was ever so thankful for them doing that.

 

[MSgt B]

Kind of. My understanding is that U.S. military ordance that is painted blue will not have an explosive component. However, it may have propellent, and would still be dangerous.

Inert (training) missiles have a blue stripe painted around them. They are completely inert, all they have is a seeker head. the rest is filled with cement to simulate the proper weight. No propellant, no nothing.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Maybe Ventura Unified School District's "Bring an Explosive to School Day" wasn't such a good idea after all? Next they will be cutting other programs like "Bring Toxic Waste to School Day," and the "Rabid Carnivore Petting Zoo" fieldtrips.

So is the teacher in trouble for having an explosive at school? I didn't think they would have allowed dummy versions of the real things, by policy or law, but they do strange things is California.

This event reminds me of the guy in Delaware that found several types of grenades in his driveway, ranging from WWI to Korean War models.
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=80750&highlight=driveway+grenade

Apparently, they were harvested by an oyster shell harvester from the ocean floor. Harvesting shells was for grinding up and being put to use as driveway gravel. Apparently, the area harvested had been used to dump excess munitions after various wars. As I recall, the company doing the harvesting knew about the munitions and did not think them dangerous as none had ever exploded during harvested or when the shell was run through the grinding/crushing machine.

Do y'all remember public service announcement TV commercials of the late 1960s and early 1970s where they showed discarded or lost blasting caps, what they may look like, and what could happen if you handled one improperly. Apparently, such event had happened a few times, mostly to kids, and so the commercials were to let folks know what the explosive looked like, not to touch it, and to summon help ASAP for it to be removed. As a child, the commercials were fairly disturbing as they often showed one or more post blast kids all bandaged, bruised, and looking like survival of the blast was not a good thing. I have no idea if the pics of kids shown were from real blown up kids, but it impressed me with the danger of the buggers. 30+ years later, I still have not ever seen one in real life, but if I do, I won't putting it on my desk.

 

[Fire4Effect]

hmmmm... I guess that 500 pounder I've got my mailbox nailed to should go...

 

[cracked butt]

Do y'all remember public service announcement TV commercials of the late 1960s and early 1970s where they showed discarded or lost blasting caps, what they may look like, and what could happen if you handled one improperly. Apparently, such event had happened a few times, mostly to kids, and so the commercials were to let folks know what the explosive looked like, not to touch it, and to summon help ASAP for it to be removed. As a child, the commercials were fairly disturbing as they often showed one or more post blast kids all bandaged, bruised, and looking like survival of the blast was not a good thing. I have no idea if the pics of kids shown were from real blown up kids, but it impressed me with the danger of the buggers. 30+ years later, I still have not ever seen one in real life, but if I do, I won't putting it on my desk.

I've never seen that one, but I've seen a very disturbing training video at a place where I worked several years ago about peroxide buildup in solvent drums. The short filmclip showed a man approaching a chemical drum in what looked like a dump of some sort. The man started unscrewing the bung on the drum, followed by a fairly large explosion leaving nothing but a crater in the ground.

 

[Camp David]

Exploding ammunition injures Ventura teacher

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There was also a story yesterday about a student thrown out of school for possession of small Swiss Army Knife yet a teacher brings a 40mm round of ammunition to school while teaching? Sounds like a discrimination case is in order!!!!