The "total catastrophic failure" of an armored containment chamber during the disposal of illegal fireworks seized from a Los Angeles home Wednesday set off an explosion that injured 17 people, including nine police officers.
Authorities received a tip earlier in the day concerning illegal fireworks stored at a house in South Los Angeles, KCAL-TV reports. A search of the property found around 5,000 pounds of "commercial-grade fireworks," Police Chief Michael Moore said at a news conference.
The fireworks were loaded by bomb squad technicians onto pallets so that they could be detonated at another location. Officials, however, decided that the improvised explosive devices were too unstable to move.
An armored containment chamber on a tractor-trailer was brought in to dispose of the fireworks, but bomb squad techs encountered "total catastrophic failure of that containment vehicle," Moore said.
"Clearly, protocols were followed and pursued, but something happened in that containment vehicle that should have not happened and we don't know why, but we intend to find out why," he said.
The explosion happened at around 7:40 p.m., and seriously damaged the tractor-trailer the containment vessel was on, the Los Angeles Times reports. The blast flung the top of the 1-ton iron chamber about two blocks, the Los Angeles.
Several nearby houses also sustained mostly broken glass and other damages from the explosion, and 75 firefighters responded to the scene, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. The incident displaced as many as nine families.
Three people were taken to the hospital with serious injures following the explosion, and three people suffered minor injuries. One person was treated at the scene.
Nine LAPD officers were taken to the hospital with minor injuries and were in fair condition. A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent also suffered minor injuries.
Arturo Cejas, 27, was arrested on suspicion of reckless or malicious possession of a destructive device, the Los Angeles Times reports. A 10-year-old boy also was found at the home with Cejas, and authorities are considering possible child endangerment charges.
Local and federal authorities are trying to determine who supplied the fireworks to Cejas, who had planned to sell them during the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Officials also will investigate why disposal of the devices went wrong, Moore said.
