Seventy-seven-year-old Václav Bilický from Ralsk in Českolipsk worked for the police for 38 years, of which 31 years as a police pyrotechnician in northern Bohemia. He also worked as a forensic expert in the field of ammunition and explosives, specializing in pyrotechnics.
During his active career, Bilický met English and American cougars with a long-term timer several times. He also wrote scripts about them, which he then used to teach his followers.
About aerial bombs with a long-term timer, i.e. the same as the bomb from the chemical plant in Záluží, the former pyrotechnician claims that even today, 80 years after the war, they are insidiously dangerous. “This is proven by the facts about the explosions of aerial bombs. In Europe, they occurred, for example, during earthworks for the construction of highways and were associated with fatal injuries,” pointed out Bilický.
It has 144 hours to explode. The bomb discovered in the Litvinov chemist has a special timer
Crime
Photo: archive of V. Bilický
Former police pyrotechnician Václav Bilický (first from the right) inside the Ralska pyrotechnic display, which he built in Ralsko-Kuřívody.
Even the police are worried about the unpredictability and danger of the puma. That is also why on Wednesday they evacuated almost 600 people from the Litvínov chemical plant and closed the area 1.5 kilometers from the puma.
“The reason is the unpredictability of the possible initiation of an aerial bomb. Not only because of the find itself, but also because of the surface damage that occurred during the excavation work. The influence of time also had its share. This also makes our work much more difficult,” explained Irena Pilařová, the spokeswoman for the police pyrotechnics.
On Wednesday, the chemical company Orlen Unipetrol itself began, in addition to the evacuation of workers, the controlled shutdown of the refinery part of production. “Production in this part is stopped until further notice. The petrochemical part of the plant remains in operation for the time being. At the moment, 227 workers are involved in ensuring production, the others are working from home and waiting for further instructions,” said Pavel Kaidl, the company’s spokesman, on Thursday.
The puma igniter is secured against unscrewing. It cannot be unscrewed without exploding.
Václav Bilický
What will come next? Police pyrotechnicians must decide how to defuse the bomb. “Communication is ongoing with experts not only from the Czech Republic, but also with colleagues from Germany, who have more experience with the findings of aerial bombs with chemical time detonators,” indicated Irena Pilařová.
According to Václav Bilický, the problem is that the puma lighter is secured against unscrewing. “You can’t unscrew it without exploding,” says an experienced pyrotechnician.
At the time of his active activity, they neutralized similar cougars using a procedure that he had prepared himself. “The cougar will cut itself. Not a water jet, but an explosive that wraps around. The lighter part flies away with the lighter after detonation, there is not so much explosive substance left in it and it explodes. The explosive remains in the heavier part, which then just ignites and burns out,” Bilický described.
He admitted that he had considered patenting the process in the past. In the end it didn’t happen. Also because the cases of finding bombs with a long-term timer are very rare. According to him, a similar procedure with a different amount of explosives was also used in Germany or Slovakia.
The delay may have started at kickoff
According to police pyrotechnicians, the puma discovered in Litvínov has a so-called long-lasting igniter. With the help of a chemical principle, its detonation is set with a delay of 144 hours.
Photo: Police of the Czech Republic
Unexploded air bomb found
As it has not yet detonated, it is feared that the delay mechanism was triggered only during the excavation work during which the bomb was discovered on Wednesday.
Police pyrotechnicians have therefore already indicated that they will wait the specified 144 hours, i.e. six days, and if nothing happens, they will dispose of the bomb on the spot.
The chemist prepares to dispose of the cougar
The spokesperson of Orlen Unipetrol, Pavel Kaidl, has already confirmed that the company, in cooperation with the police and fire brigade, is preparing its premises to deactivate the bomb found. “It should happen no earlier than Wednesday, August 28. We assume that after that we will be able to start putting the entire area back into operation,” added Kaidl.
“If there were to be an on-site disposal, a large amount of protective equipment will certainly be used, either for cover or various barriers and barriers. Also to break the seismic wave. This is a large munition and it is necessary to realize that the effect of the explosion does not only spread over the earth’s surface, but also below it. So there will be a need to dig dam seismic trenches,” security advisor and forensic expert Karel Koubík said on Czech TV.
“In the case of on-site disposal, the puma would also have to be covered with earth in order to reduce the fragmentation effect as much as possible,” added Koubík.
Memento roku 1974
The site of the Litvínovsk chemical plant has already experienced one huge explosion. This July, it was 50 years since the most tragic industrial accident in the Czech Republic occurred in a chemical plant. On the evening of July 19, 1974, an explosion occurred in the alcohol production plant. The explosion and subsequent fire at the chemical plant claimed a total of 17 lives. Another 112 people were injured.
A significant number of the victims were in a tram car that was passing in the immediate vicinity of the crash site. The pressure wave flattened part of the chemical plant and more than three hundred other buildings were damaged. Investigators later determined that the cause of the crash was gas leaking from a pipe elbow that had a wall weakened by corrosion.
Massive evacuation in Ostrava due to unexploded ammunition. The police rang people’s bells
Crime
Photo: Police of the Czech Republic
A puma discovered during excavation work in the area of the chemical plant in Litvínov – Záluží
