Jon Johnson File Photo/Gila Herald: A deputy was shown the device and secured the area until Air Force personnel could arrive to retrieve it.
By Jon Johnson
jonjohnsonnews@gmail.com
FORT THOMAS – A highly incendiary Air Force flare was located at a public dump site in Fort Thomas on Friday.
The reporting party described the object as likely being some type of military munition, and a deputy was dispatched at about 9:15 p.m. to the area of milepost 308 of U.S. Highway 70 to investigate.
Upon arrival, the reporting party led the deputy to the dump site about 200 meters south of the highway and pointed out a rectangular device roughly 8 inches in length. The device had markings on it labeling it as “explosive” and “highly flammable” as well as marking indicating it belonged to the United States Air Force.
The deputy then contacted the 355th Fighter Group Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit at Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson and sent pictures of the device, which was positively identified as an Air Force flare.
The area was then secured until the arrival of an EOD unit from Davis Monthan Air Force Base, which showed up at the scene at about 1:41 a.m. and secured and removed the flair. The EOD unit also checked the site for other like devices but didn’t appear to find any additional flares.
Previously, a Fort Thomas woman was seriously burned Jan. 30, 2017, after she was handling an Air Force flare she found on the ground and it detonated. The woman reportedly suffered burns to roughly 50 percent of the front of her body, including her face and hair, in that incident.
