Police have evacuated a town in northwest Louisiana while they move out around 6 million pounds of illegally stored explosives.
About half of the approximately 800 residents of Doyline, where scenes from HBO's popular "True Blood" series have been filmed, were evacuated Friday after authorities discovered around 1 million pounds of explosive powder stored by Explo Systems Inc. at Camp Minden, a former army ammunition plant.
Authorities moved to evacuate the town of its remaining residents Sunday after discovering up to six times more M6 artillery propellant -- 6 million pounds -- at the site, according to NBC station KTAL in Shreveport.
Police and Explo employees have moved just under 1 million pounds of the explosives into 18-wheelers, and have segregated another 250,000 pounds of the material for future removal, KTAL reported late Sunday.
'Time-consuming' process
In a statement, police said the process was “time-consuming” but so far there had been “no unexpected problems, incidents and injuries.”
The explosives had been improperly stored, officials said. The material should have been housed in a bunker approved by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and registered with the Louisiana State Police explosives division.
Webster Parish Sheriff Gary Sexton did not expect the evacuation order to be lifted until Tuesday, KTAL reported.
Doyline has shut local schools on Monday and was considering staying shut on Tuesday as well, according to Webster.
Doyline is situated about 270 miles northwest of New Orleans.
Louisiana State Police Col. Mike Edmunson said that the owners of Explo were in South Korea, but were scheduled to return to the United States on Monday, according to KTAL.
State police said the improperly stored materials were discovered during a follow-up inspection to an Oct. 15 explosion at the Camp Minden property.
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According to its website, Explo “has been demilitarizing / recovering explosives / propellant for over 15 years” and “has a unique, on-site capability for purifying valuable TNT from tritonal for reuse.”
It has operated at Camp Minden for seven years, according to the site.
Phone calls to the Louisiana State Police went unanswered early Monday. The man who answered the phone at the Webster Parish Sheriff’s Office said he was not authorized to comment to the media.
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