Source: 3 deputies killed in explosion X-rayed grenades, thought they were inert before cutting one in half

KTLA ^ | 07/21/2025 | Will Conybeare

[Mlheureux]

Unscrew the cap/pin and check if it has a charge.

[tumblindice]

Pineapple grenades in the WWII Pacific theater seem to have been painted a baby poop yellow.
I demand to know why.
The Blueberry Girl

[mabarker1]

Not the Type M79.

More FYI

[maddog55]

Having worked with ordnance for many years, you treat all ordnance as live like you treat a gun as always loaded.

[Ez2BRepub]

Not very smart EOD. Could have unscrewed the detonator from the body of the grenade and looked inside, to make sure, before, getting out the cutting saw.

They are now part of the training manual, on, what not to do.

[karnage]

You take them to a cook-off area and safely detonate them.

At least that’s how they did it in the Chicago PD Bomb Squad.

[al baby]

Just like Lazs penis

[healy61]

I knew a guy in college who had an inert grenade. Showing it to me, he pulled the pin and yelled. I was out of the room and down the hall in about 2 seconds when I heard him laughing. Scared the bejeebers out of me.

[fini]

Something doesn’t sound right. US military grenades are incredibly safe. You can unscrew the fuse and look inside the grenade. If it is “real,” you can tell immediately. If I remember right, the explosive is basically plastic explosive which requires heat and pressure, so you can burn it out (no pressure). However, remember that the heat created by burning plastic explosive burns well over 1000 degrees F. The fuse that is removed from an M67 frag grenade is a little stronger than a firecracker. In the Marine Corps, we used to screw grenade fuses into apples and throw them at each other. Yes, it was unsafe, because the fuse does throw a small mount of metal around, but we were Marines and so we never let a little risk interfere with our fun.

[Svartalfiar]

Per the law enforcement source, on the following day, the deputies cut one of the grenades in half as a training exercise in order to examine what was inside of it thinking it would not explode; however, that is when the device detonated.

How did they decide it was inert if they knew it was full of something? Why would they do training exercises on stuff they confiscated from Grandpa's attic? Don't they have official channels to order training devices from? And as others have mentioned, why cut it open instead of just using regular disassembly methods and unscrewing it?

[jurroppi1]

In the portion of the article that was posted:

It was later reported by the same source that the explosives, two military-style grenades, were X-rayed at the scene and deemed inert on Thursday.

[jurroppi1]

Right, I perform industrial digital radiography as part of my work duties. It depends on the system and its capabilities, but CT or standard 2D with enough power to penetrate into dense items will definitely work. Ovepenetration might have been the issue here - too much accelerating voltage, which may have caused the appearance of nothing being inside the grenade case. The policy should require that a competent DR tech be the one to perform and interpret the imagery.

[SuperLuminal]

"The next day, at least one of the grenades exploded as the technicians were handling them in the parking lot."

That's why all the early news was a "car bomb"...