Wendy says, "GREAT STORY! Great title. Added to the Archive."

Hi!

This incident happened last September in Kemi, northern Finland.

Basically two guys, aged 27 and 24, had been collecting dud explosives from WWII Lapland war. Here we have them, literally, in the nearby forests. They had been collecting frag grenades, ammunition, bazookas etc. All in all over 100 pieces and all off them stored in the other guys garage Older of the two collectors started to defuse one of the grenades when the fuse ignited - and off they went. One of them died immediately and the other one succumbed to his wounds on the way to a hospital.

Here are couple of news links. The first one is in English and the second and third are in Finnish, but I'm sure you'll enjoy them through a translator or something.

The Finnish links have police investigation info and they confirmed it was a grenade, not a cannon ball.

Would you be so kind as to award these national heroes for their service of removing themselves from the gene pool?

BR, Iiro Inkilä

--- http://www.finlandtimes.fi/national

--- English Translation http://www.iltalehti.fi/uutiset/201309140093047_uu.shtml

a hundred shots
Saturday, 14.09.2013

Yesterday Kemi explosion, which occurred in the background is a large number of war weapons. Per?pohjolan Police Department Detective Chief Inspector Miia Lehtinen, the risk of a major accident is a real great ammunition inventory. Investigation of the case is still pending. However, it is known that the dead 27-year-old man and injured yesterday in a 24-year-old man collected the explosive stocks forests of Lapland.

From here you have identified at least in the German army were in use ammo Lehtinen says. The storage of explosives stored at the police present state of knowledge in the light of the accident. At the moment, it is known that there is a garage. Explosion locally has been found, inter alia, teddy bears, and recoilless artillery shells. Total ammunition was the police that up to more than a hundred.

Wounded consulted

The men were last night in the home of the younger Karihaara district, while the older man was treated for an unknown reason the projectile tool and it had exploded. According to the police accident there were two men, but also a woman and a 3-year-old girl. The woman and the girl are not injured. The accident injured 24-year-old man is the father of the child. The accident killed 27-year-old man was the woman's brother.

The man later died of his injuries in a hospital in the North West. The police yesterday, according to information from a man would be enough time to take the Oulu University Hospital, but he did die of before the transfer. The risk of explosion due to breaks of three hundred meters of evacuated. The police has canceled the crash area of ??insulation. Ammunition is transported away from the area and evacuated residents to return to their homes. The police have already heard the wounded man, who apparently has been kranaatinsirpaleen body. He is suspected of a preliminary manslaughter and explosives offenses. --- ---

English Translation http://www.kaleva.fi/uutiset/pohjois-suomi/kemin-rajahdys-autotallissa-kymmenia-kiloja-rajahdysainetta-myos-naapurit-vaarassa/651360/

--- http://www.finlandtimes.fi/national/2013/09/14/2424/1-killed-in-explosion-at-Kemi

Sat, 14 Sep, 2013 01:29:22 AM
200 people evacuated from the area
1 killed in explosion at Kemi
Defence force to inspect explosion

One person was killed and another injured when an explosion took place at a garage of ammunition at Karihaara area in Kemi on Friday evening, police and rescue team sources said. Rescue members evacuated about 200 people at the locality residing within 150 meters of the place of occurrence after the explosion to avoid further human casualty as the situation of the garage was still risky , said sources.

Police and eye accounts said the accident took place at about 6.00 pm when people were handing with the ammunition of Canon inside the garage at Varpulankatu area. Two persons including one critically were injured in the explosion. The critically wounded was taken to Oulu University Hospital by helicopter immediately where he succumbed to is wounds, police and hospital sources said.

"Ammunition of Canon were being handled at that time inside the garage," fire-fighter Lauri Manninen said, adding that there were still explosive products in the garage.

The rescue member said that the evacuated people were shifted to nearby Karihaara school temporarily and the evacuation activities were complemented calmly in a collective move of different agencies. The rescue member said that the situation of the garage is still risky and experts from defence forces are expected to come join the operation to inspect the risk factors.

The explosion, however, was not caused by fire, said rescue members, adding that more people from the nearby area also could be evacuated.

---

Submitted on 08/09/2014

Submitted by: iiro inkila
Reference: iltalehti 14.9.2013

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Candi said:
Definitely Keep: Darwin Award
I can't call the other guy a hurt bystander when he'd been actively helping to collect that mass of old unstable munitions! Thank you, iiro, and submit again!

Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Darwin Award
We do get a lot of stories involving people finding munitions left behind from various wars, but given the amount of munitions these two collected I find it hard to believe they were unaware of the dangers. Thanks!

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