Electricians face an explosive situation with WWII relic find

Published on Friday 13 May 2011 16:30

THE street was sealed and police kept panicked residents away.

SHOCK: Remek Stepien, left, and Dariusz Stepniak found the fire extinguisher in the attic. Picture: PHIL WILKINSON

The tension mounted as specialist officers moved in to tackle the potentially deadly device.

What could it be which brought chaos to a leafy Newington street? Terrorists? A parcel bomb?

Er, no - a vintage fire extinguisher.

The Second World War relic was discovered by workmen hanging up in the attic of a former nursing home in Mentone Terrace and sparked the alert which saw police cordon off the street for two hours.

Experts from the Royal Logistics Corps removed the antique device by hand before taking it to a safe location to be destroyed.

The Selfac fire deterrent, believed to have been manufactured in 1941, is basically a cardboard canister holding bicarbonate of soda and a central explosive charge. Hung in roof spaces, they were deployed to contain blazes by dispersing fire retardant powder over the flames having been triggered by intense heat.

Remek Stepien, 31, the electrician who stumbled upon the potential explosive while working on renovating the house with a team of builders, said he had no clue what it could have been until performing an internet search.

"I was surprised to see something like this", he said. "It was about the size of a football and I detached it from the roof. Later someone looked it up on the internet and it said online to call the bomb disposal team."

He added: "I like history and because this is from the Second World War it's very interesting to me."

A colleague said: "We knew the bomb team was coming but we didn't expect them to close off the whole street."

A spokeswoman for Lothian and Borders Fire Rescue Service said discoveries of the vintage extinguishers in Edinburgh were not uncommon but warned they posed a genuine threat of exploding.

"We have dealt with these before and they can be highly unstable and can explode," she said.

"Sometimes people have held on to them because of their historical value but often they don't realise that over time something happens to the material inside which can make them combust if moved or treated vigorously.

"They are definitely hazardous and there has been evidence of them exploding in the past. That's why we have taken action before because you don't know what reaction you are going to get."