- Explosion of World War I-era bomb occurs in a chemical facility in the Czech Republic.
In the biggest chemical area of the Czech Republic, an old World War II bomber explosive was safely blown up using a planned explosion. The blast, set off remotely from a safe distance, happened around midday, as per the police report. The explosion was captured on camera from afar, and it created a significant dust cloud. A 500-pound bomb from the British, fitted with a potentially hazardous long-term fuse, was found at Unipetrol's refinery in Litvinov over a week ago. This industrial city is located in North Bohemia, about 50 kilometers south of Dresden.
Chemical experts constructed a barrier of sand-filled bags around the bomb, measuring 5 meters high and up to 6 meters wide. Access to a 2-kilometer radius safety zone was restricted, and drones were not allowed in the no-fly zone.
The police announced that there was no major damage after the blast, but the chemical product pipelines were located less than 20 meters from the bomb location. Before the Unipetrol refinery and petrochemical plants could resume operations, they needed thorough inspections.
The long-term fuse of this bomb was considered highly explosive and unpredictable due to its aging process. Similar bombs caused the deaths of three people in Göttingen in 2010 during their preparation.
Upon discovery in Litvinov, around 600 workers were evacuated, and the refinery and petrochemical operations were halted. The Unipetrol plant is a part of the Polish Orlen conglomerate. To cover the production gap, the Czech government decided to release 135 million liters of diesel and gasoline from its emergency reserves.
During World War II, the site was used for the Sudetenland Oil Works, which manufactured synthetic gasoline using brown coal. The factory was repeatedly bombed by the Allies between May 1944 and March 1945 to disrupt fuel supplies.
The explosion from the old World War II bomb had significant effects on the operation of the Unipetrol refinery and petrochemical plants, necessitating thorough inspections before resumption. The potential unpredictability of such bombs, as shown by the incident in Göttingen, underscores the potential dangers of war remnants.
