Bel Air Couple Finds WWI Explosive While Gardening: Fire Marshal

BEL AIR, MD — A couple in Bel Air found ammunition from the World War I era in their garden this week, according to authorities. Bomb technicians and ATF agents helped safely dispose of the round Wednesday night, the Office of the State Fire Marshal reported.

Residents in the 2600 block of Calvary Road had been working on their flower bed Tuesday when they found what was later determined to be a 37 MKI projectile, officials said.

After they called the Harford County Sheriff's Office Wednesday, that agency asked the Office of the State Fire Marshal to send bomb technicians to assess the situation.

The 37 MKI projectile had not been fired, officials determined. "The fusing mechanism was still intact," the fire marshal reported.

To keep the ordnance safe, the bomb technicians conducted an emergency disposal at the scene.

Discovering military ordnances is "not uncommon in Maryland," the fire marshal said. That is especially true in Harford County, where Aberdeen Proving Ground was founded in 1917 to bolster national defense and test weapons after World War I began.

While ordnances may turn up in the Chesapeake Bay or on land, the fire marshal said: "These devices pose the same threat as the day they were originally manufactured."

If people find a military ordnance, Maryland State Fire Marshal Brian S. Geraci says they should practice what he calls the three Rs:

• Recognize suspicious objects that should not be touched under any circumstances.
• Retreat from — leave — the area.
• Report immediately what was found and the approximate location to a 911 dispatcher.