Investigators investigate the explosion of a homemade giant firecracker that left one injured in Valencia
The explosion was heard several kilometers away this morning, and the shock wave broke several windows in nearby buildings. The pyrotechnic device created a sinkhole in the park where it was detonated.
At 00.44 a.m. this Friday, residents of Valencia were startled by a tremendous explosion that rocked the entire area of Tomás de Montañana Street and left one person injured, a cleaning staff member who had to be treated by emergency medical services.
The shock wave from this homemade mega-firecracker broke windows in the surrounding area and also on Lebón and Fuencaliente Streets. The alarm was so strong that several Local Police, Fire, and National Police units, as well as members of the Technical Specialist Group for the Deactivation of Explosive Devices (TEDAX), were dispatched to the scene to investigate what had happened.
Numerous calls from local residents alerted the security forces, who went to the vacant lot located between Lebón and Padre Tomás de Montañana streets, near number 26. The explosion occurred there. They located the hole left by this homemade bomb, whose temperature was still high when the specialists scanned the area with a thermal camera.
The technicians described the firecracker as a "high-intensity pyrotechnic device," whose explosion could be heard several kilometers away.
After the on-site investigation, the firefighters proceeded to repair the window panes damaged by the blast wave to prevent them from falling onto public roads and causing further accidents.
Paula, a resident of Lebón Street, was already in bed when the mega-firecracker exploded. All she saw was how "the room suddenly lit up and the windows rattled." This young woman, who lives on the fifth floor, thought it was "the shell of a castle," mainly due to the proximity of the Fallas festival. "I have friends who live in the same area, and we all thought it was the remains of a castle. If this happens in another month, we think it's a bomb," she explained to Levante-EMV.
After the initial shock, Paula looked out the window and met the rest of the startled neighborhood, trying to figure out what the explosion had been and asking each other if "we were okay."
The proliferation of homemade firecrackers has been noticeable during these past Fallas festivals. The police have carried out several operations to seize fireworks made by individuals, which were being thrown into public streets without any kind of control or awareness, and which are actual bombs.
Last Sunday night, officers from the Security, Support, and Prevention Unit of the Valencia Local Police (USAP) arrested a German national at the intersection of Passeig de l'Albereda and Calle Eduard Boscá, "for being in possession of illegal, homemade fireworks and having sufficient reasonable grounds to believe that this person is engaged in illegal manufacturing."
But not only that, the Valencia National Police reported yesterday the arrest of 12 men, aged between 21 and 44, belonging to an organized group who met through social media, traveling from different European countries to launch high-powered fireworks, some of them rigged to increase their explosive power.
The twelve arrested, who have since been released by the court, are charged with belonging to a criminal group, illegal possession of explosives, public disorder, and assaulting law enforcement officers in several operations carried out since March 13 in the old channel of the Túria River in Valencia, during the special Fallas measures against the misuse, manipulation, and homemade pyrotechnic devices.
El estruendo se ha escuchado esta madrugada a varios kilómetros a la redonda y la onda expansiva rompió varios cristales de los edificios de la zona - El artefacto pirotécnico generó un socavón en el parque donde fue detonado
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