'Altered' fireworks discovered, disposed of near Petro truck stop

You never know what you might encounter when you’re out walking your dog.

West Plains resident Michelle Grimmett experienced this first hand late July 4 when she discovered what looked like some type of explosive device while out walking her dog near her home on South Thomas Mallen Road not far from the Petro truck stop. Grimmett said as she was passing the Inland Power and Light substation she noticed something suspicious lying in the facility’s dirt entryway.

Instead of investigating, Grimmett went home and called Crime Check, then went back to the substation to make sure no area children spied the object and decided to get curious. Grimmett said the device was 10 – 12 inches in length, about 1-2 inches in diameter, wrapped tightly in black tape with a “pretty substantial wick sticking out of it.”

“It didn’t look like something a kid would make,” she said. “It looked risky.”

Spokane County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the location on the 6800 block of South Thomas Mallen just before 9 p.m., along with the county’s explosives disposal unit. After securing the area, SCSO spokesman Dep. Mark Gregory said the disposal unit approached the device and eventually “disrupted” it — the technical term for detonations — around midnight.

“The boom was so stinking loud, I couldn’t believe it,” Grimmett said.

Gregory was reluctant to go into too much detail on what the device was so as not to “give people ideas.”

“Officially, it looked like somebody was messing around with fireworks, experimenting, trying to make something bigger,” he said.

Gregory stressed that not only are fireworks illegal in the county, but that the fire danger remains very high, and anything that could kindle a blaze should be avoided. Grimmett also noted that there had been a small fire, which was quickly extinguished, near the site about four days prior.

Gregory praised Grimmett on how she dealt with the discovery.

“She did the right thing,” he said. “Call and report, but don’t mess with it.”

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].