Explosives prompt evacuation in Reno

Scott Sonner

Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2001 | 10:56 a.m.

RENO -- Police evacuated dozens of homes and called in a bomb squad Tuesday after a woman cleaning out her late father's storage shed found more than 100 pounds of unstable explosives.

Authorities evacuated 25 to 30 homes for about four hours in a 300-yard radius around the two sheds before the bomb squad safety removed the explosives.

The sheds contained 60 pounds of unstable dynamite and 50 pounds of ammonium nitrate, a commercial fertilizer used to make explosives in the mining business, the local sheriff said. A deputy later said the explosives may have totaled closer to 170 pounds.

"It could have taken out a fairly large area had it gone off," Washoe County Sheriff's Deputy Michelle Youngs told KOLO television.

The man who owned the property in Sun Valley just north of Reno was a miner who died years ago, Washoe County Sheriff Dennis Balaam said.

His name was not immediately released. The property had been tied up in probate as the estate was settled, the sheriff said.

"The daughter got possession of it this week and, unbeknownst to them, as they are cleaning out, they find the dynamite," Balaam said.

The bomb squad built a dike around the sheds and flooded the explosives with diesel fuel to stabilize them.