Hubbard residents hear 2nd explosion


By Jeanne Starmack

starmack@vindy.com

HUBBARD

Township police investigated another explosion Tuesday but again could find no explanation for it.

A resident called to report the explosion coming from somewhere near Harding Park.

When police arrived, they were told by residents there that the explosion actually came from the west, possibly near Jacobs Road, said township Police Chief Todd Coonce.

Police couldn’t find anything, just as on Nov. 2, when many residents in the northwest part of the township near Coalburg Lake and Everett Road reported hearing an explosion so loud it shook their houses.

Tuesday’s explosion was not as powerful, Coonce said. The one on Nov. 2, he said, could be felt as far away as Youngstown-Hubbard Road, nearly two miles away.

Coonce said last week he was checking with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives about a substance called Tannerite, which is sold legally for target shooting.

It is sold as two separate substances, but when the substances are mixed together, they become an explosive.

Tannerite is pretty stable, taking a bullet from a high-powered gun to set it off. A shotgun won’t do it.

The chief said the ATF likely would not get involved unless there is a large amount of Tannerite being stockpiled by someone. He said, however, his officers would arrest and charge someone caught using Tannerite under state laws against having a dangerous ordnance containing ammonium nitrate, which is one of its ingredients.