Photo by Catherine Hardee / Neuse News

UPDATE at 6:13 pm: Officials from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base’s Explosive Ordinance Division have removed what has been determined to be decomposed explosives – possibly highly volatile pyrotechnical material but not dynamite – from the house on Parrott Avenue in Kinston. The material was decomposed to the point it could not be positively identified.

“It was not dynamite, but it was an explosive device,” Lenoir County Emergency Services Director Jerri King said. “They have retrieved that and are taking it to a secondary location for appropriate disposal.”

Kinston Fire Department Chief Damien Locklear lauded the property owner for calling authorities about the potential dynamite.

“The caller made the right call,” Locklear said. “We wanted to side on the side of precaution and get this away from this area as safely as possible.”

Locklear added the material was found in a box marked “highly explosive” and it was in a red wrapper.

The material was removed from the house on Parrott Avenue by the EOD and moved to another site where it will be properly disposed of by detonation. Homeowners that were evacuated have been allowed to return to their homes.

Along with the Seymour Johnson Explosive Ordinance Division, the other responding agencies to Saturday’s event were the Kinston Police Department, Kinston Fire Department and Lenoir County Emergency Services, comprised of Lenoir County Emergency Medical Services and Lenoir County Emergency Management.

UPDATE:

Seymour Johnson EOD is in a house in Kinston assessing the situation after explosives were found Saturday morning.

A Kinston resident had purchased the property on Parrott Avenue and was cleaning it out and came across what is believed to be five or six sticks of dynamite this morning. The resident called the Kinston Department of Fire and Rescue, who called in Lenoir County Emergency Services, who called in the Seymour Johnson Explosive Ordinance Division.

Lenoir County EMS is on scene providing support. The Kinston Police Department is securing the area and did an evacuation of the homes in a 300 foot radius, approximately 25-30 residents. KDFR is also assisting, and helped with the initial sweep of evacuations. There was also a second sweep to ensure everyone evacuated.

Once the SJEOD team secures and isolates the explosives, they will gently remove it from the home and take it to be detonated elsewhere.

From Lenoir County Emergency Services:

On Saturday, May 2 at 11:29 a.m., a resident on Parrott Avenue in Kinston contacted the Kinston Police Department to let them know they had found what is suspected to be 5-6 sticks of dynamite in a house the resident had recently purchased. Investigation revealed the house has not been lived in for nearly two decades.

Representatives from the Kinston Police Department and the Kinston Fire Department have evacuated a 300-feet radius of the house (approximately 30-35 homes).

At this moment, an Explosive Ordinance Division unit from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base is at the home to mitigate and dispose of the danger.