Cobourg firefighters responded after a resident called about numerous “explosive” cylinders on lawns in the area of Cornell Crescent.
At approximately 12:20 p.m. firefighters along with police arrived on Cornell Crescent and were met by a man who had collected a number of the small cyclinders.
Hundreds of small cylinders marked “explosives – danger” were littered on various lawns in the area and on the street.
Given the markings, emergency services were concerned what they were dealing with and how long they were there.
Firefighters located a box marked “Mean Machine” that stated it shoots brilliant multi-coloured flaming balls, which are a type of fireworks projectile.
Firefighters believe the projectiles were fired before the snowfall and were buried by the winter snow.
Cobourg Fire Department Captain Scott MacDonald said fire crews responded without lights and sirens in hopes of keeping people and residents away from the area until they could hopefully determine what they were dealing with.
Just prior to finding the box to solve the mystery, emergency services were going to contact the Department of Defence to see if they could help.
“They’ve been on the ground for sometime, nobody could see them because of the snow. We even found some up by the house, but they may have been pushed up by the snowblower. When we found the box it appears to have been weathered for sometime, but we were still able to read the label.”
Person that contacted in emergency services did the right thing.
“What I would recommend in the future because nobody knew what they were and we weren’t sure of the chemicals involved is just leave them there and call emergency services.”
“The police were there, we were there and if we needed to we would have called in others to deal with the situation.”
Ted Orfan from Fireworks Canada confirmed they were consumer grade fireworks or “family fireworks,” but added, “best to be safe and err on the side of caution.”
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
