
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, September 20, 1994                   TAG: 9409220057
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

FAMILY UNEARTHS EXPLOSIVE PAST

When members of the Harter family cleaned out the Salem home of their recently deceased mother last weekend, they found some highly explosive heirlooms in the garage: several sticks of old and especially dangerous dynamite.

A member of the state police bomb removal team, clad in a bomb suit, removed the explosives Sunday afternoon.

``Needless to say, we handled it with kid gloves,'' said Salem Assistant Fire Chief Pat Counts.

The dynamite was found in the home of Aberdeen Harter at 237 Turner Road, Counts said. Harter died in late August.

Family members, who all live out of state, were cleaning out the garage at the house when they ran across six sticks of dynamite. They also found a box holding more dynamite, but the sticks were too deteriorated to be counted, Counts said. He estimated the explosives were 40 to 50 years old.

``It's particularly dangerous when it's that old,'' Counts said.

Dynamite is made with nitroglycerin, he said, and as it ages, the nitroglycerin ``sweats out,'' making it very unstable and especially sensitive to shocks.

Counts said one of the family members told him he remembered his father buying dynamite about 50 years ago to remove a stump. He suspected that's where the explosives came from.

by CNB