Man discovers 66 sticks of TNT in shed

Instead of finding old photos or other memorabilia, a man discovered a shocking surprise when cleaning out his father’s shed.

Guy Zahn’s father died this past year. Now, Zahn his property on North Facer Mountain Drive in the Pocatello area. He found 66 sticks of dynamite along with their detonators that had been stored in boxes for years.

This morning a bomb squad along with the Idaho Falls Fire Department launched a $100,000 robot to dispense with the explosives.

The Bannock County Sheriff’s Office was among the first responders on the scene.

“They’re bleeding, which means that thenitroglycerinis starting to leak from them and there were also detonators in each box, which is not a real safe thing to do,” Bannock County Sheriff Lorin Nielsen explained.

After the field in Zahn’s backyard was watered, the robot carried the bags of TNT into two holes that had been dug in the ground.

Fire officials also soaked the sticks in diesel fuel before they were ignited.

However, there was no explosion since the diesel fuel acts as a neutralizer and stabilizes the dynamite.

Zahn felt the explosives were a threat to public safety, although no other homes in the surrounding area were in danger.

“He did the right thing. He didn’t know they were there, he called us, and we knew we had enough time,” Nielsen said.

Zahn mentioned his father’s former job required him to dig ditches and explosives were essential in breaking through the hard volcanic rock.