A routine morning at a Malibu state beach turned tense Sunday when a military explosive — identified as a 1950s-era Super Bazooka round — washed ashore near Naval Base Ventura County and had to be detonated in place.
Beachgoers at Mugu Beach were cleared from the area around 10:30 a.m. after the unexploded anti-tank round was spotted in the sand, prompting California State Parks Police to call the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.
“A piece of military ordnance — pretty much what you’d expect a missile to look like — had washed up on the beach, which is pretty common in that area because it’s directly next to the Navy base,” Ventura County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad Detective Dan Turock told the California Post.
Turock said the device was quickly identified as a Super Bazooka round, an anti-tank weapon developed after World War II and used during the Korean War.
Because it was confirmed to be military ordnance, the U.S. Navy took over the response. Bomb technicians from Naval Base Ventura County determined it was too risky to move and detonated it where it was found.
“They examined the Super Bazooka round, and they said, ‘Hey, this thing may still contain explosives. So instead of moving it, we’re just going to blow it up right here on the beach.’”
Technicians dug a hole in the sand, placed the device inside, and coordinated with local authorities to secure the area. The Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) was shut down briefly for the detonation.
“We filled in the hole, and we were done for the day,” Turock said. The round was completely destroyed in the explosion. The Ventura County Sheriff’s Bomb Squad shared a video of the detonation on its Instagram account, where a loud boom can be heard followed by back smoke rising in the air.
“It just disintegrated into nothing. It completely evaporates,” he said. “There was nothing left of it, it just totally turned to dust.”
The beach was closed for about three hours, Turock said, while the roadway was shut down for only about five minutes during the actual detonation.
Incidents like this, he added, are not rare for that particular stretch of coastline.
“In the last three years we’ve had about 10 of these — the same exact thing happen at that same exact beach — so it’s fairly common.”
Turock said that part of the beach belonged to the military and was used for training. “They would shoot all those [bazookas] onto the beach, not knowing that in 30 years it was going to become a public beach and still have all that stuff under the sand.”
While the Super Bazooka round did not have a timer or self-detonating mechanism, it still posed a serious risk, if disturbed.
“It could be sensitive to moving it,” Turock warned. “If you touch it or move it around, there is a possibility that it could detonate if you move it enough or drop it. If anyone sees something like that, just leave it where it is and call 911,” Turock said.
