Residents displaced by South LA fireworks explosion call for LAPD officers to be fired
SOUTH LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Residents who were displaced by a massive explosion of fireworks involving the LAPD bomb squad held a march and rally on Monday, calling for the officers connected to the blast to be terminated from their jobs.
The catastrophic explosion occurred in June 2021, leaving 17 people injured and damaging dozens of homes and vehicles.
Many affected by the blast say they are still living in hotels and can't get back into their homes.
"These police officers need to be fired immediately," said Ron Gochez of Unión del Barrio, a nonprofit advocacy group. "If any one of us go to our jobs on any day and cause millions of dollars in damage and ruin people's lives, we're going to get fired or probably go to jail. So that's what they need to face as well."
The Los Angeles Police Department has admitted fault for the explosion, which happened after officers seized a massive cache of illegal fireworks and attempted to detonate them.
The bomb squad packed nearly 40 pounds of the most volatile and dangerous homemade fireworks into an armored containment vessel that was rated for only 33 pounds, according to a federal report.
The fireworks were supposed to be detonated safely at the scene because they were too unstable to move but the vessel exploded, and debris rained down on scores of residences, businesses and vehicles.
The explosion injured 10 law enforcement officers and seven residents and damaged 22 homes, 13 businesses and 37 cars and trucks. About 80 people were displaced and some have yet to return to the neighborhood.
Federal investigators said that bomb squad technicians underestimated the weight of the explosive material because they gauged it by sight instead of using a scale, and also ignored the warnings of a team member who said the explosive material should be broken into smaller loads.
Four members of the bomb squad were later disciplined in connection with the incident.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
