gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (Infantry Crest)
Douglas Berry ([personal profile] gridlore) wrote2003-11-04 02:09 pm

Boom

A hand grenade was found Monday on 19th Avenue near a Shell station at Santiago.

That;s about two blocks from where we used to live, but that's not why I'm posting this. This is (from the story):

Police diverted traffic from several directions and evacuated people from the immediate area before detonating the grenade about 2 p.m., Tully said.

A hand grenade has a lethal radius of about 4 meters. Beyond that, the shrapnel density drops off quickly. (figure the surface area of sphere.. the intact notched-wire fragmentation portion of the device is about 5cm across before it explodes.) Add in the fact that the shrapnel is not very aerodynamic, and you can be a few dozen feet from a grenade and escape harm. The biggest danger is concussion, and that isn't that bad. (about 5kg of C-4) There isn't a hand grenade on Earth that will lift a man off his feet, even if he's standing on it.

Which makes the evacuation bit a little funny. Were they going door to door making people leave homes? How far down did the traffic diversion begin? I think maybe they over-reacted just a little too much.

Re: For clarification....

[identity profile] jarlsberg71.livejournal.com 2003-11-05 05:54 am (UTC)(link)
useless yeah, but think of the arms on the guys who'd have to throw them! :)

Ok well atleast that's the reason why *I'm* not allowed in the military....