Sheriff's Tactical Bomb technicians have rendered safe a cache of remotely controlled illegal fireworks that were discovered Sunday night in a wooden bunker built in the sand on Hermosa Beach, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
Many neighborhoods sounded like war zones on Fourth of July as people set off illegal fireworks to mark Independence Day despite repeated pleas from fire officials around Southern California to attend safe professional public events.
According to Deputy Tracy Koerner of the Sheriff's Information Bureau, deputies were on patrol Sunday, citing people setting off illegal fireworks, especially if they had large quantities of the explosives.
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Sheriff's stations have not reported the numbers of fireworks calls to headquarters, he said.
Huntington Beach in Orange County had been"fairly quiet this weekend," according to Huntington Beach police spokeswoman Jennifer Carey.
"We've seen far less illegal fireworks this year than in recent years,'' Carey said.
A South Los Angeles man is expected to face a judge Tuesday on a federal charge of illegally transporting tons of explosives -- including dangerous homemade devices that were detonated by police, leading to a massive explosion that destroyed a specially designed containment vehicle and injured 17 people.
