A California construction crew may have discovered a piece of Vietnam War history right here at home.
According to CBS Newsworkers found an unexploded bomb near the Roseville Railyards outside Sacramento. It was discovered near an ammunition train carrying bombs for the Vietnam War, where it caught fire and exploded back in 1973, sending bombs and explosives into the surrounding area.
“The official report says they can't say for sure what happened, but they say one of the wheels on the box car overheated and set the train on fire and set some of the bombs on fire, and it was a chain reaction.” Citrus Heights Historical Society President Larry Fritz said CBS News.
The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department has not yet confirmed its origin, but Fritz sent a photo of the bomb to a friend who worked on the cleanup after the 1973 disaster. “He confirmed it. He said, 'Yeah, that's one of the bombs,'” Fritz noted.
Fortunately, no one was killed in the explosions that lasted for about a day and a half. “We were just sitting there watching the bombs go off at night and about every four or five minutes we saw a big orange fireball go off,” Fritz, who just turned 18, told KCRA..
“I think there were about 1,200 of them that broke,” he recalled. “A lot of them were just dumped and unexploded. So I'm sure they cleaned up as much as they could. But you know, there were so many they didn't catch them.” He pointed out that the newly discovered bomb was “right near the epicenter” and its location tells a lot about its origin. “I can't think of any other reason why it would be there. And so, I'm pretty sure it's from the 1973 explosion,” he said.
Local authorities have not yet confirmed the bomb's connection to the Roseville Railyards blast, but believe it may be a remnant of the devastating event.
“I would never say never. Our bomb squad guys haven't said that yet, but obviously they're going to get into it,” Amar Ghandi of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office told KCRA. “It's crazy, right? 51 years later, things like this can still pop up because as we keep growing, more houses are built and more construction will happen. So hopefully this is the last one. But it wouldn't surprise any of us to see more.”