Live grenade forces evacuation of Glendale Community College campus, nearby homes

A live Vietnam-era grenade was detonated Thursday at a Glendale Community College satellite campus, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Investigators said the device was unearthed by construction crews at the Garfield Avenue campus. The discovery prompted the evacuation of the entire campus and several nearby residential buildings.

The bomb squad placed the grenade in a hole in the ground, covered it with several 25- to 35-pound sandbags and detonated it.

About 450 students and about 50 instructors and other staff were evacuated at the community college campus. A daycare center on the campus was also evacuated and the children were sent home with their parents, said Mary Mirch, vice-president of instructional services for the college.

John Muir Elementary School was also placed under lockdown moments before the explosion.

The Glendale News-Press has more details and reaction.

-- Veronica Rocha in Glendale

 

Comments

[My opinon means nothing]

Where did that come from? I don't remember any aresnals of ammunition being in Glendale?

[Mike]

I was one of the evacuated staff at the Garfield campus today and we had no idea it was a grenade at the time. It was a mass of confusion and I think curriostiy when we heard a bomb had been found on the construction site. As I was preparing to leave the parking lot of the adjacent medical center, I asked a Glendale police officer if everything was okay, and he told me, "There's a bomb and you're in the path." Say no more. I was gone a minute later.