Bomb squad responses to a WWII Japanese grenade found in Clinton

CLINTON — A World War II-era grenade found in a home on Thursday morning prompted home evacuations by first responders.

Clinton Fire Chief David Olsen said firefighters and the Davis County Bomb Squad responded to a call from a resident who found the grenade on their property with the safety pin pulled.

The bomb squad examined and X-rayed the grenade but could not determine if it was still alive or not. Out of an abundance of caution, Olsen said they evacuated three homes in the area.

Olsen said firefighters and the bomb squad were making plans to call a robot to come into the home to get the device into an explosion transport so they could take it outside and safely detonate it.

However, the bomb squad X-rayed it again and found that the firing pins inside of the grenade were removed, making it defective.

Olsen said that novelty grenades are often sold at stores, but this was a unique case because it was a Japanese grenade, which are generally not sold as a novelty.

The homeowner who discovered the grenade told KSL TV that his dad was in the Navy during WWII, found the grenade somewhere, brought it home, and always had it in his Chester drawer.

The homeowner said he was cleaning the basement when he found it in a bag with many other things of his dad’s, so he called the bomb squad out of caution.