LASD Firing Range Explosion Preventable?

Tuesday, a mobile firing range parked at the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic exploded, severely injuring two Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies.

The deputies – who may have been trapped in the 53-foot long trailer by an automatic locking system suffered severe burns and remain hospitalized.

While the cause of the fire remains under investigation – ATF agents are now involved in that effort – sources close to the situation have told the Globe that the explosion was most likely caused by a lack of maintenance of the range, that the trailer had not been properly cleaned for some time, leading to a buildup of gunpowder and lead residue. It was that residue, sources say, which could have ignited, setting off the explosion.

The Sheriff’s Department would not comment specifically on the poor maintenance allegation, saying that all of its mobile ranges are “temporarily closed while we investigate the cause and origin of the fire that occurred at Pitchess Detention Center.”

The Department added that “Deputies are required to qualify quarterly with their firearms and these mobile ranges are used for these qualifications.”

However, the department did not respond to a follow-up question asking how long a qualification range must be for the LASD. Typically, law enforcement qualification ranges are 75 feet in length; the trailers, as noted, are only 53 feet long.

The department also did not respond to questions about its maintenance standards and protocols regarding the ranges.

LASD mobile ranges have featured in multiple incidents in the past few years. While the Department says they are needed because the area they cover is so vast, this is the fourth – and most serious – fire since 2016.  In two of the fires, the LASD said sparks caused by metal grinders used during upgrades set them off while the third was caused by a deputy setting off a flash bang grenade inside a trailer.

The department did not say exactly what the “grinders” sparked, leaving open the possibility that poor maintenance may have been an issue in those two fires as well.

In this case, sources say the trailer had not been properly cleaned for quite some time, allowing enough flammable dust to accumulate that a gunshot on the range caused it to ignite.  The sources added the poor maintenance could be related to other internal oversight issues and lax enforcement of standards in general in the department.

This scenario is not at all a remote possibility – indoor ranges have to be cleaned very carefully, very often, experts say, to prevent this exact type of event from occurring.

Unspent powder is released “every time you fire a bullet,” said Joe Bricko of Range Systems, a Minnesota-based firm that outfits indoor ranges.  “If you’re negligent, it starts to build up.”

Bricko stressed that he was commenting about general proper range protocols and not the Pitchess explosion itself.

It is extremely important to clean indoor ranges often and with specialty equipment – like sparkless vacuum cleaners, said Bricko. Without such maintenance enough powder and lead dust could accumulate to lead to an explosion, though the process could take years.

Bricko said deputies would not necessarily have seen a layer of dust on the floor or walls of the trailer, warning them of any danger – the true threat is from dust gathering in corners and cracks and more out of the way parts of the range (hence the need for proper design and maintenance.)

“Years of unspent powder could be trapped in crevices and when it gets packed down (by foot traffic, etc.) it becomes almost like a bullet,” Bricko said.

The incident remains under investigation, though if shoddy maintenance is at least a partial cause the LASD will have many more questions.