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130+ Pounds Of Explosive Materials Caused Buena Home Explosion That Killed 2 Kids: Police

The house fire and explosion that killed four people in Atlantic County was ignited by chemicals that are used to make commercial-grade fireworks, authorities said.

Franklin Township police

Franklin Township police

Photo Credit: Facebook/ Franklin Township Police

The Aug. 3. fire and the explosion that followed likely originated in the rear, left corner of the first floor of a two-story outbuilding on the 300 block of Northwest Boulevard in Buena, according to Franklin Township police. 

Authorities couldn’t say exactly which chemicals ignited.

“Due to the heavy fire damage, collapse of the structure, and excavation of the property during the search the Atlantic City Police Department Bomb Squad is unable to determine the type of explosives that caused this chain of events,” Franklin police said in a statement.

Among the materials found inside a vehicle on the property were:

  • 74 pounds of potassium nitrate, 15 pounds of aluminum powder, six pounds of magnesium, three pounds each of calcium carbonate and strontium carbonate and about 12 pounds of homemade aerial shells. 

More materials were found in the outbuilding on the property include:

  • 58 pounds of ammonium nitrate, 30 pounds of aluminum powder, 26 pounds of sodium salicylate, 25 pounds of potassium nitrate and 45 pounds apiece of ammonium perchlorate and potassium benzoate.

Two men and two children were killed in the fire which spread to other homes.

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