An Explosive Demolition unit from Fort Bragg was called to a rural farm building Thursday afternoon after a 50 pound box of dynamite was found.
Everrette Strickland owns property on Highway 231 South near Middlesex. He discovered an old box of dynamite in a tobacco pack house which has been vacant since the 1980’s.
Military bomb disposal experts, with the assistance of the NC State Bureau of Investigation Bomb Squad, determined the dynamite had started to crystallize and was unstable. No evacuations were ordered because they were no nearby neighbors. However, a section of Highway 231 was closed for several hours and traffic was rerouted around the area.
The dynamite was moved to an open field at the rear of the property and detonated.
Officials believe the dynamite had been in the pack house since the 1930’s. Strickland told authorities he remembers his grandfather using the dynamite to blow up tree stumps when he was a small boy.
