What began as an ordinary Sunday morning at Mugu Beach in Malibu quickly became a safety operation after a military explosive, later identified as a 1950s-era Super Bazooka round, washed onto the sand near Naval Base Ventura County and was destroyed on site.
Authorities cleared beachgoers from the area at around 10:30 a.m. after the unexploded anti-tank round was discovered. California State Parks Police responded first, then contacted the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office for assistance.
“A piece of military ordnance — pretty much what you’d expect a missile to look like — had washed up on the beach, which is pretty common in that area because it’s directly next to the Navy base,” Ventura County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad Detective Dan Turock told the California Post.
Turock said officials quickly determined the object was a Super Bazooka round, a type of anti-tank weapon developed after World War II and used during the Korean War.
Once the item was confirmed to be military ordnance, the U.S. Navy assumed control of the response. Bomb technicians from Naval Base Ventura County inspected the round and concluded that moving it would pose too great a risk.
“They examined the Super Bazooka round, and they said, ‘Hey, this thing may still contain explosives. So instead of moving it, we’re just going to blow it up right here on the beach.’”
To carry out the controlled detonation, technicians dug a hole in the sand, placed the device inside and worked with local authorities to keep the surrounding area secure. The Pacific Coast Highway was also briefly shut down as a precaution.
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“We filled in the hole, and we were done for the day,” Turock said. The explosion completely destroyed the round. The Ventura County Sheriff’s Bomb Squad later posted video of the detonation on Instagram, capturing a loud blast followed by black smoke rising into the air.
“It just disintegrated into nothing. It completely evaporates,” he said. “There was nothing left of it, it just totally turned to dust.”
The beach was closed for about three hours, Turock said, while the roadway was shut down for only about five minutes during the actual detonation.
Incidents like this, he added, are not rare for that particular stretch of coastline.
“In the last three years we’ve had about 10 of these — the same exact thing happen at that same exact beach — so it’s fairly common.”
Turock said that part of the beach belonged to the military and was used for training. “They would shoot all those [bazookas] onto the beach, not knowing that in 30 years it was going to become a public beach and still have all that stuff under the sand.”
While the Super Bazooka round did not have a timer or self-detonating mechanism, it still posed a serious risk, if disturbed.
“It could be sensitive to moving it,” Turock warned. “If you touch it or move it around, there is a possibility that it could detonate if you move it enough or drop it. If anyone sees something like that, just leave it where it is and call 911,” Turock said.
