A call about a possible gas leak outside a house on Rexford Court in North Modesto on Tuesday morning turned into something much bigger once firefighters started looking around. A fire crew traced an unusual odor to a backyard shed, where they found an old military-grade mortar alongside a collection of household chemicals.
A hazardous materials response was requested after firefighters encountered the odor and the contents of the shed. The Modesto Police Department and the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Office Bomb Squad were also called in once the mortar was spotted.
Bomb Squad Steps In To Remove The Device
Responders secured the area while specialists worked to deal with both hazards separately. The bomb squad removed the potentially explosive mortar, while hazmat personnel secured the chemicals found inside the shed.
The bomb technicians who staff California squads complete six weeks of training at the FBI's Hazardous Devices School, the sole national facility that certifies civilian public safety bomb techs, the FBI notes in materials describing the program.
Questions Remain About The Mortar
Open questions remain about how the mortar ended up in a residential shed and whether it was live or inert, details the fire department's post did not address.
The household chemicals that triggered the original hazmat call also could not simply be hauled to the county's drop-off program. Stanislaus County operates a permanent Household Hazardous Waste Facility in Modesto that accepts up to 15 gallons or 125 pounds of chemicals for free, but the facility explicitly bars explosives, ammunition and military ordnance, according to Stanislaus County Environmental Resources. That restriction is why specialized hazmat and bomb units, rather than routine waste collection, had to handle the Rexford Court shed. The county's environmental rules also hold property owners liable for contamination, injury or damage tied to improperly stored or abandoned hazardous stockpiles on their property, per the same agency.
A Well-Rehearsed, If Unusual, Multi-Agency Response
A single-family home in ZIP code 95356 sits on a 0.17-acre lot with a shed.
The coordination between city fire and police units and the county bomb squad wasn't improvised. The Stanislaus County Sheriff's Office Bomb Squad holds annual joint training exercises with local police departments, including Modesto Police Department's SWAT unit, to rehearse exactly this kind of explosive-threat response and scene containment, the sheriff's office has said.
Other Ordnance Calls and What to Do
The verified comparison here was not a Central Valley residence: KRON4 reported on July 17, 2024, that a bomb team responded to the Ben Lomond Transfer Station after old military ordnance was found there. Authorities said the item was intact; the report described a transfer-station discovery, not a residential shed. The Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department says its Bomb Squad responds to 60–70 calls for service each year, a figure that does not by itself indicate an increase in calls. The department advises anyone who finds a suspicious item they believe may involve explosives to contact local law enforcement or call 911.
Modesto Fire is an all-risk department that handles emergencies well beyond fires and medical calls.
It's the kind of response that echoes other recent multi-agency operations in the area, including the Ceres house fire rescue last Sunday. How the mortar came to be stored in the shed remains an unanswered question.
