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Winlock barn burned to dispose of old, volatile explosives

WINLOCK, Wash. — A dilapidated barn was torched by the Winlock firefighters after possibly decades-old explosives were found by the property owner.

Deputies were called to the 100 block of Hart Road Monday night after receiving a call from a man who said he found deteriorated explosives while cleaning out an old barn on his property. The explosives were there before the man became the owner of the property and appeared to have been in the barn for several decades, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies called the Washington State Patrol Bomb Squad, which determined there were several extremely deteriorated and volatile explosives in the dilapidated abandoned barn.  Authorities decided the safest way to handle the disposal of the explosives was to burn the building.

The Winlock Fire Department did a controlled burn of the barn at 11:40 a.m. Tuesday.  The building was almost entirely gone by noon.

Sheriff Steve Mansfield said the man did the right thing by calling police.

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