THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 19, 1996 TAG: 9610190284
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: 21 lines
Two pipe bombs found at a recycling plant were detonated without incident by the state police bomb squad Friday morning.
An inspector for Bi-Metal Corp. at the Southeastern Public Service Authority's regional landfill on U.S. Route 58 found one of the bombs about 7 a.m., said Randy S. Cribbs, plant manager. Within about an hour, state police had disarmed the device and one that had been found earlier, he said.
The metal pipes - one about a foot long, the other about 6 to 8 inches long - had caps threaded on each end and gunpowder packed inside, Cribbs said. The longer pipe had a fuse hole in it, but no fuse was attached, he said.
The plant processes about 1,500 tons of trash a month from SPSA's Refuse Derived Fuel plant in Portsmouth. The plant's five employees, who are trained to identify explosive devices, find bombs or military ammunition several times a year, Cribbs said. by CNB