5 Officers Injured in Unexpected Explosion During FBI Bomb Training in Pennsylvania

5 Officers Injured in Unexpected Explosion During FBI Bomb Training in Pennsylvania
A crest of the Federal Bureau of Investigation inside the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building in Washington on Aug. 3, 2007. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
Katabella Roberts
Updated:
0:00

Five bomb technicians have been injured after a device unexpectedly detonated Thursday during an FBI live explosives response training for the Philadelphia field office, officials said.

FBI Philadelphia was holding the response training at the State Correctional Institution Phoenix, a prison in Skippack Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, when the incident occurred, the agency said in a statement on Twitter.

Officers from multiple agencies, including individuals from the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, the Pennsylvania State Police, and FBI Philadelphia field office were injured during the explosion, the statement said.

All of the injured officers were taken to a local hospital for treatment, officials said, and an investigation into the incident has been launched by the FBI and Pennsylvania State Police.

A total of three bomb technicians with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, a bomb technician with the Pennsylvania State Police, and a bomb technician with the FBI Philadelphia field office were wounded, a spokesperson with the FBI Philadelphia field office told NBC News.

The spokesperson did not provide further details regarding their conditions.

Montgomery County provided an update on the injured personnel on Thursday and said that the Montgomery County Department of Public Safety had responded to the scene to provide assistance.

Incidents Like This Are ‘Rare’

The update said that one of the injured bomb technicians, a 14-year member of the sheriff’s department, was airlifted to Penn Presbyterian Hospital for treatment, while two other longtime sheriff’s department bomb technicians were taken to Paoli Hospital where they are both receiving treatment.
Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) said in a statement on Twitter that the PSP bomb technician had suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

The accident occurred shortly before 10 a.m., according to local reports.

A prison spokesperson told 6abc that staff from the Montgomery County Bomb Squad were installing an explosive device for a later class when it prematurely exploded.

Video footage obtained by 6abc showed a vehicle in the middle of a large field on the prison grounds that appeared to be completely charred and medical helicopters flying overhead.

Authorities told the local news station that operations at the prison were not impacted by the incident.

Jackie Hickey, a retired bomb technician for the Los Angeles Police Department and part of the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, told 6abc that such training incidents are rare but investigators will likely discover what caused the device to unexpectedly detonate.

“I worry for the techs that were injured,” Hickey said. “There’s a lot of damage that occurs in an explosion, especially a vehicle. It has metal glass and a lot of debris that will come from that explosion.”

Related Topics