A widow groans by her husband's coffin
January 15, 2007. Quang Binh province, Viet Nam
The bombs had been accumulated here for some time. When being sold to this scrap dealer, all of them were empty since the main charge had already been chipped off. The only thing left were explosive boosters by the size of a half liter water bottle threaded into the fuse well at the nose of the bombs. It is clearly understood in the scrap metal business that the metal must be free from explosive other wise no factory would buy it. This demand had created a number of people risking their lives to make those �1st grade steel� casing safe to sell.
This photo was taken thru our truck's window in May 2005 in front of the scrap yard
The first step was to separate the nose section (section with the fuse in it) from the rest of the bomb. Like one would cut off a tiny rotten end of a banana, but this was done with a blowtorch. They cut the conical section off the bomb so they could sell the steel casing.
Several bomb cases after the first procedure of removing the nose section. Photo taken in May 2005
When the casing was sold out, they started to take a look back at the left over piles of conical casing and an idea came across: If they take those boosters off, they�ll be able to turn the most of those conical casing into cash. However, this seems a lot trickier as explosive is still inside the fuse well. Nobody believes this but hammers and chisels were used to turn loose those rusty threaded boosters.
The work site was 30 meters from the backyard of the local scrap dealer�s, next to a dirt path. Three men started their work in the morning, and by 3 p.m. they had successfully removed several dozens of booster charge from the fuse well of bombs. The work was almost done as there were only two more rounds to go. By this time another man came home and saw three men working. He joined the group to watch his buddies work.
The work site. Photo taken on Jan 16, 2007
Pile of their succeeded work
Many booster charges seen next to empty bomb noses
The loud and powerful explosion occurred at 3:15 p.m. A piece of fragment weight 3 lbs penetrated the brick wall nearby and landed about 1.5 kilometers from the detonation point. Three men were killed instantly on the spot, including the watcher. The scrap yard owner, who stood near to supervise the work was severely injured and died two hours later on the operation table of the local general hospital.
The accident site
The accident took away the breadwinners of four families; widowed four women and orphaned ten children.
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