LAPD discovers huge fireworks cache, raising fears of another LAPD fireworks disaster

Los Angeles residents were evacuated Wednesday after police discovered a massive cache of illegal fireworks inside a South LA home. Such a development would be alarming in any urban metro area, but especially in a city where the LAPD’s last major fireworks operation accidentally detonated an entire neighborhood.

The LAPD bomb squad packed nearly 40 pounds of the most volatile and dangerous homemade fireworks into an armored containment vessel that was rated for only 33 pounds, according to a federal report.

The fireworks were supposed to be detonated safely at the scene because they were too unstable to move, but the vessel exploded and debris rained down on scores of homes, businesses and vehicles.

The explosion injured 10 law enforcement officers and seven residents, and damaged 22 homes, 13 businesses and 37 cars and trucks. About 80 people were displaced.

ABC7

For many Angelenos, “LAPD bomb squad” no longer evokes reassuring competence so much as vivid memories of the department packing unstable explosives into an overloaded containment vessel and turning South Central into an active war zone in 2021.

In Los Angeles, finding the fireworks is only the first of the emergencies.