An acid or dry ice bomb went off in Seal Beach’s College Park East neighborhood Sunday afternoon, June 2, according to Seal Beach Police Sgt. Ron La Velle. He said the incident occurred on Violet, near Candleberry.
No one was injured and the police have no suspects.
This was the second acid or “dry ice” bomb to go off in College Park East in the last few months, according to La Velle.
He said witnesses saw two young boys fleeing the scene of Sunday’s incident.
La Velle said dry ice/acid bombs don’t create fire.
“It’s a thing that’s been trending on the Internet for awhile,” La Velle said. He said that sometimes young people use their cell phones to video tape the “explosion,” usually of a plastic bottle, and post a video online.
“It’s a really common occurrence,” La Velle said.
As for the two College Park East bombs, the police said similar devices were used in both Sunday’s incident and the incident two months ago.
“These devices were most likely ‘acid or dry ice bombs,’ so named because they are a combination of acid or dry ice and other chemical components that trigger a chemical reaction,” La Velle said.
“These devices are a basic base (plus) acid (equals) chemical reaction device,” La Valle said. “The chemical reaction is accelerated by friction, so kids combine the ingredients in a plastic bottle. Once the ingredients are combined and agitated, the chemical reaction results in a rapidly expanding gas. The danger is that there is no way to determine how quickly the gas will expand, but usually the bottle stretches before it blows.”
La Velle said it wouldn’t take much to lose a finger, have a piece of plastic strike you in the eye or have acid burn your face.
“The biggest I’ve ever seen was in a 2 liter bottle,” La Velle said.
If you find something that looks suspicious or a bottle that appears to be severely stretched, La Velle advises calling both the police and the Orange County Fire Authority.
