Those thunderous late-night booms that had Columbus residents wide awake on Friday were not storms rolling through. They were the sound of a controlled detonation, as the Columbus bomb squad and military explosive ordnance disposal technicians blew up a stash of outdated military artillery shells that had turned up on private property in Knox County.
The shells were taken to a gravel pit outside Brinkhaven and destroyed shortly before midnight, sending shock waves and loud reports across parts of the Columbus area and even rattling windows in some neighborhoods. Officials stressed that the blasts were planned, tightly controlled and that there is no ongoing threat to the public.
How Officials Handled The Find
According to WBNS, a new property owner on North Sandusky Street stumbled onto the cache and contacted the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, which called in explosives specialists to take over.
Bomb technicians from Columbus, working with a Wright-Patterson Air Force Base explosive ordnance disposal team, removed the shells from the property and transported them to a gravel pit on Millersburg Road near Brinkhaven. There, they carried out a series of controlled detonations. The sheriff’s office reiterated that the operation was planned in advance and that there is no continuing danger to the surrounding community.
Why Residents Heard The Booms
Residents across the metro area reported hearing the blasts, with some saying their homes shook and others sharing audio and video clips on neighborhood forums. A busy thread on r/Columbus drew dozens of firsthand accounts describing multiple, spaced-out explosions late Friday night. Many users said the sound seemed to roll in from the south of the city toward downtown…