The military is urging members of the public to report — not touch or move — suspected marine location markers and ordnance after a few were recently found during a beach cleanup in Nova Scotia.
While the metal tubes may look old, inactive or harmless, 14 Wing Greenwood’s explosive ordnance disposal team warned in a news release Monday that they can still pose a serious danger.
“They will burn with intense heat and they will reactivate and function just kind of how they’re designed to with the intense flame and heat, sometimes over 800 [degrees Celsius],” Sgt. Ryan Doyle, the team’s deputy commander, told CBC News.
“There have been a few instances where people have moved them, specifically in their car, and they have activated or have just kicked them and they’ve started to smoke again. I don’t recall any specific injuries, but I do recall some that have reignited from people touching them or moving them.”
Doyle said marine location markers are pyrotechnic devices that emit smoke, light or flame to help mark a position on the water’s surface. They are used for search and rescue operations, navigation and training.
Doyle said the military relies on red phosphorus because it creates a highly visible, long-lasting flame and smoke that doesn’t easily snuff out. But because of that, the substance can ignite when exposed to air.
Residual phosphorus could still be present in a marker that appears burnt out, inactive or coated in sand, salt or other marine debris.
“However, moving or transporting the item, particularly in a vehicle over uneven roads, can disturb that protective coating and expose the phosphorus to air, causing it to reignite unexpectedly,” 14 Wing Greenwood said in the news release.
Doyle said a marker that is inadvertently kicked “could very well explode depending on what it is or function again and you will cause severe injury to yourself and possibly others.”
He said if you spot one, step away and take photos from a safe distance, mark the location as best as possible, and pass the information on to local law enforcements. Never place it in a vehicle or garbage bag.
Scotian Shores, a beach cleanup group based in Middleton, N.S., found location markers this month in Advocate Harbour, N.S., and posted about it on Facebook.
“Just as we were about to leave the beach, our very last volunteer and her husband were walking off the beach and found it, sent me a picture and I said, ‘Don’t touch that,'” Angela Riley, the group’s project manager, told CBC News on Monday.
“It was actually very well marked. Usually when we find them, they don’t have stickers or any marking on them so I was surprised. It looked pretty new, if you asked me.”
Riley said the group has found at least one marker every month or two this year.
Riley said in her experience, there can be too many steps between reporting the marine location markers and having a disposal team arrive.
“I have to call the RCMP and sometimes the RCMP doesn’t know what I’m talking about and then they call dispatch and then dispatch calls whoever and then they call the military and every time they call a new person, I have to explain the situation over again,” Riley said, adding beach cleanup groups should have a direct line to the ordnance disposal team.
“If we could call them directly, they could be picked up a lot quicker. Or maybe train one of us how to handle it.”
When markers are found, Riley said there is often no followup with the cleanup group to confirm that it has been removed.
Doyle said he would be open to a direct line, but added that local authorities are helpful in cases where the markers show up. He said police can enact some safety protocols if needed so the military has better information to respond to the incident.
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