LIVE OAK - A section of 17th Avenue was closed and a handful of homes and businesses were under an evacuation order after a beach-goer brought homemade fireworks to a firehouse Monday morning, the Sheriff's Office reported.
The plastic pipe was filled with match heads, but the fuse had burned down without igniting it, according to sheriff's Sgt. Bill Gaza, who took the call around 10:15 a.m. He photographed the suspected explosive device with his cell phone camera, then sent the picture to the head of the Sheriff's Office Bomb Team.
The Bomb Team responded to the Central Fire Protection District fire station on 17th Avenue to handle the pipe bomb. Because the device might explode, the firehouse was emptied and deputies evacuated nearby homes, businesses and the playing fields at Shoreline Middle School while the Bomb Team worked, Gaza said.
The evacuations, which closed 17th Avenue between Kinsley and Felt streets, were lifted a little before 2 p.m. after bomb technicians "disrupted" the device, Gaza said.
Originally, the pipe bomb probably had substantial firepower. Igniting it would have shredded the plastic, turning it into shrapnel, Gaza said.
But the threat was less Monday.
"By looking at it, it looked to them that the tide had maybe come over it already," Gaza said, explaining that would likely render the explosives useless.
The situation Monday was complicated because the possible pipe bomb was removed from the beach and brought to a more populated area, Gaza said. He recommended people not touch explosive devices and instead call 911. "We would like them to leave it where it is," he said. "A pipe bomb can blow up just from the friction of the black powder."
Had the device found Monday been left at the beach, the Bomb Team could have detonated it there in the sand, Gaza added.

Article source: Santa Cruz Sentinel: Link