WPD Bomb Squad removes hazardous devices from The Railroad Museum

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The scene has been cleared at The Railroad Museum after the Wilmington Police Department removed outdated railroad flares and other hazardous materials on Wednesday afternoon.

The call came in around 10:30 am. Museum Director Holli Saperstein tells WWAY they were doing some cleaning when a volunteer, who is a retired law enforcement officer, noticed the old explosives were deteriorating. Visitors were asked to come back later and the immediate area was evacuated.

The devices could have been in the museum for more than 40 years. They aren’t sure when they were added to the collection. Some of the items being removed are torpedoes, old school safety devices used to alert trains to danger, not the torpedoes you may be thinking of. The volunteers also found flares. Some of the items were inside the museum, others were in the caboose parked right outside.

Saperstein says in each of the torpedoes, there’s about a teaspoon’s worth of explosives.

“Over the years, I understand, those substances start to deteriorate and go back into, it could be a little bit of nitro, a little bit of gunpowder, something that’s explosive,” Saperstein said. “So they’re a lot more likely to accidentally go off. They’re considered about as dangerous, from what they’re telling me, as a commercial firework.”

The Cape Fear Regional Special Teams Bomb Squad that’s managed by Wilmington Police Department was called to safely remove and dispose of the explosives. Chief Donny Williams says Shelia the robot was used in the situation as well as officers on the bomb squad. He says he’s glad the museum called for help.

“If a human picks them up, they can blow your hands off or if the stars align as I was told they have the potential for death and we just don’t want that to happen,” Williams said.

The explosives were removed and taken to a safe location where they can be permanently destroyed.

The museum will be open for business as usual on Thursday.