POV

-Tonight is a clear demonstration of the clear and present danger that fireworks in this city pose when you have underground operators, sellers that gather this material, store it in an unsafe and dangerous fashion, exposing entire neighborhoods to the real risks of a loss of life.

[ Fireworks popping ] -We just spoke with the captain with LAPD's Major Crimes Division who told us it's actually close to well over 5,000 pounds of illegal fireworks they found inside this home in South Los Angeles.

-LAPD tells us this is one of the largest busts that they have seen so far of illegal fireworks just ahead of this holiday.

-It's unclear what led to this bust.

If someone called in something suspicious or what exactly happened.

But you see LAPD out here.

There's the big bomb squad truck as well.

Look at that thing on the back.

It looks like it's almost like a big pressure cooker or something where they may be able to actually detonate some of these explosives on site.

-Nobody's been evacuated.

The street value, the estimate is probably north of $200,000, I am told.

Again, one person in custody.

Charges include child endangerment because there were kids in the house at the time.

[ Police radio chatter ] -They're carrying out the explosives now.

-Yeah, thanks, Eric, let me know when they got the hatch closed, okay?

-Copy.

HQC, explosives are secure and they closed the hatch.

-Fire in the hole!

-Units, be advised -- -[ Explosion ] [ Car alarms blaring ] -Chief, I need you back here immediately.

This thing went way south.

-Engine 14, meet me on 1.

[ Blaring continues ] 14 From Battalion 1 on 1.

-Hey, Battalion 1, go ahead for 14.

What do you got there?

[ Siren wails ] -So, basically this thing was a way bigger explosion than they had anticipated.

It had a pretty good blast out of that container.

Check those PD over there.

[ Blaring stops, siren wails ] [ Police radio chatter ] -Everybody started running and I -- like, I couldn't find my mom.

I was like, "Mom, where are you?"

You know?

And my -- Everybody was screaming, going crazy.

-I came out running from the room, like, really worried, like, scared.

-Alright, good evening, everyone.

So I'm going to give you a basic outline of what we know right now.

I believe we have some of the finest, if not the finest, bomb techs in the world.

They're constantly training, honing their craft.

They're leaders and are referenced from across the world.

The damage that we saw resulted not only in the physical damage to some houses, breaking largely of glass.

The range of injuries with them I'm thankful and grateful are non-life-threatening.

But more concerning was the injuries to the civilians and officers that were there.

Our total numbers at this point, it's approximately 17 personnel.

10 of those are first responders, being police and an ATF agent.

And the remaining seven are civilians, community members.

Those improvised explosives were described as approximately 40 Coke can-, Coca-Cola can-size devices that had fuses simple fuses on them.

This vessel should have been able to safely dispose of that material.

-Prior to this explosion, we had some really close-up video of a bomb technician loading in several boxes into that spherical tank, almost as many as she could fit, and she appeared to be taking precautions, but she was loading them in with her bare hands in a short-sleeved shirt.

And sometimes they'll even send a robot to handle the device.

It appeared that the urgency wasn't really there in terms of -- in other words, there was no immediate concern of a spontaneous explosion such as this.

-[ Chuckles ] -When LAPD's bomb containment truck blew to pieces, the cover on the device got launched nearly a mile away where it sliced through a tree before smashing into this home.

Seeing this damage reminds Andi this really was a close call.

-Oh, my God.

What if this thing would've landed on someone?

What if it would've landed on my aunt, on my daughter?

Something went wrong.

Someone's at fault and someone needs to be held responsible.

Seriously.

-The fact that the door, the lid flew 2 1/2, 3 blocks, what does that say about that blast?

-Those are details of this investigation that the department will certainly need to -- my apology -- to address.

-I just want to be very clear about this.

The particular things that they use inside this vehicle, that they feel that they are not safe enough to travel with.

That is why they explode them in the neighborhoods in this very, very expensive vehicle is because they determine that it is safer to do it there than to travel with them on the roadway.

Can you imagine if this thing would have exploded on the 405?

[ Explosion ] [ Car alarms blaring ] -And you think about the 405.

But let's go back to this neighborhood where there are little kids.

There are black and brown communities, people who live in that area.

It does not matter.

This should not happen.

-Lieutenant, can you please come over here real quick?

I'm sorry.

I just want to -- -No, no, we welcome this.

We welcome this.

-I want to bring him over here because our anchors are very concerned -- I'm sorry, We're live on TV right now -- that they are thinking that this was done just in this neighborhood.

And I know that this is something that you guys do basically in every neighborhood when it comes to this type of explosives.

Can you explain to me why the decision was made to try and explode them here versus travel with them?

-Sure.

So, when the techs find a substance that's really volatile and very dangerous, they try to detonate it in place because it's just too dangerous to transport on a normal vehicle because of obviously an explosion.

So, after the explosion we discovered that some folks were still within that vicinity that didn't answer the door.

And that's how we discovered that some folks were injured.

-He said he went door to door.

But I also want to hear from residents because we don't just want to take his side and his word.

There is an investigation and there are two sides to this story.

-[ Speaks indistinctly ] [ Chuckles ] [ Explosion ] [ Shouting indistinctly ] -The terrifying explosion was captured on cellphone video Wednesday night by the Martinez family who've been staying at a Red Cross shelter set up at the Fred Roberts Recreation Center.

-Like, our house was destroyed and there's some valuable things inside.

-I don't hear very well.

I don't see very well.

And my head hurts.

-The truck was parked right in front of their house.

They're hurt.

They lost their home.

Jose Becerra and his brother also lost the cars they use for work.

-The police go there in the morning and they say, "We found some fireworks in the neighbor house.

So you have two options.

Leave the house or stay inside of the house and you're going to be safe."

-Becerra's daughter says she's overwhelmed.

-I have a few hundred dollars in my bank account, a credit card, and 10 people to house, and no resources, no guidance.

[ Crowd booing ] -It's unfortunate that many of you were uprooted from your homes, people were injured and family members were injured.

We had LAPD bomb tech officers who suffered injuries.

We had eight people that were transported to a hospital along with all of our partners in the community.

So we feel -- we feel that this accident, we wish it had been avoided.

-So, Commander Kowalski, can you first tell us who determined how many pounds were deemed safe to put into this containment vehicle?

-It was -- Our Newton commanding officer was one of the incident commanders at that time.

-What was his name?

-What's the name?

What's the name?

What's the name?

[ Crowd booing ] -Can that name be shared at this time?

[ Crowd chanting "We want names" ] -If you cops want to talk about rebuilding the community, get the [bleep] out of your houses and let these people move into your homes.

Give up your [bleep] paychecks and give these people your money because it's your [bleep] people that have caused all these issues.

I lived in Compton for 30 years and I've dealt with all your [bleep] and watching my black and brown brothers being killed by you [bleep] So [bleep] you.

-Thank you, Manuel.

-No, I'm not done.

I want to say it in espaol.

-One minute.

-La chota, la polica, esos cabrones estn diciendo que les quieren ayudar en su vida.

Pues que les den sus cheques, que se salgan de sus casas y que los dejen a ustedes que se metan a las casas de ellos porque los taxes de nosotros son los que le estn pagando a esos cabrones.

Y se van a la casa en la noche y se duermen como que no hicieron madre.

Que se vayan a la chingada.

-The aftereffects of that fireworks explosion that rocked a South L.A. neighborhood back in June continue to be felt.

The families of two people who recently died say that accident was the cause and they want the city to do right by them.

-Evacuee Lorna Hairston recalls the blast, she says helped kill her 72-year-old partner, retired educator Ozzie Hutchins.

-Three windows full of glass came down on me and Venetian blinds, and I couldn't get them off of me.

-Hairston says their home right next to the blast is where Ozzie Hutchins was born.

-If the blast hadn't happened, do you think Ozzie would still be alive?

-Oh, yeah, of course.

There's no reason.

Why would he die?

What would he die of?

You know, it was just stress and that.

-The coroner says a heart attack was partly to blame.

-I come over here to check and see about the windows, which they did not put up.

And when I got back to the motel, he had expired.

-Activists say a man in this house died when his roof collapsed from the blast.

-If this was Westwood, if this was Beverly Hills, if this was Santa Monica, would we be here a month later with boarded-up windows?

We don't think so.

-I want to personally express my apologies to every resident, business operator and customer that was traumatically impacted by this incident.

[ Explosion ] -The LAPD comes clean about its bomb technician's catastrophic mistake that rocked a neighborhood and injured more than a dozen people.

-Yeah, let me make it real simple.

The LAPD bomb squad, it seems, thought they were detonating explosives or fireworks with an explosive capacity of 16 pounds, 1-6, in a container that could hold as much as 25 pounds.

All is good, except that the actual amount in there was close to 42 pounds.

So now you know why it probably exploded.

And people here are asking themselves, how does that happen?

Why would LAPD bomb squad not weigh such volatile explosives with a scale instead of estimating visually?

-The 42, that includes the counter charge, correct?

-Yes.

-Okay.

You talked about 15, max capacity is 25.

Were they operating under the assumption that 15 was the right number or 25 was the right number?

-I don't have their specific sta-- -You need to be fired, Chief Moore!

-I don't have the specific statements on that.

-[Bleep] you, Chief Moore!

-Okay.

-He deserves to be fired for his explosion in a South Central neighborhood!

-Who was the manufacturer?

-You need to be fired!

Chief Moore must go!

Chief Moore will go!

-I don't have that information for you right now.

-How many people have been taken out of the field?

-I'm here -- I'm here for the press conference.

-Is it the whole -- -Sorry?

-How many people have been taken out of the field?

-[Bleep] you, Chief Moore!

-The individuals that were involved in this, five.

-You shouldn't be telling anybody numbers because you don't know how to do math!

-And is this the largest -- -You reported -- -At 16.5, would this have been the largest -- -[Bleep] you, Chief Moore!

-I don't know.

-Okay.

-[Bleep] you, Chief Moore!

Chief Moore must resign now!

You are responsible for this!

-Okay, anyone else?

Thank you all.

Appreciate your patience.

-Around 20 families were displaced.

The majority are still waiting for affordable housing options or repairs.

-The bomb squad repeatedly ignored warnings from one of its most experienced technicians.

-We reached out to LAPD, but they say they do not have a comment at this time.

-I am a truck driver in the oil field.

It's been a rough, what, year and a half.

Lost a vehicle.

[ Laughs ] Lost a house.

-So right now my house, there's no walls in one of my rooms 'cause we were remodeling.

Halfway through, the oil field went to [bleep] So now we're in a half-constructed house.

-In a town like this, everybody suffers.

You know, you -- you would think it's only a problem for the people that work in the oil field when it declines, but it's not.

-Thanks to the hardworking citizens like you, the United States of America is now the number-one energy superpower anywhere in the world.

So congratulations.

-And you always say this -- "Next time the oil field comes back up, we're gonna save."

But then it goes up and that's the last thing you do.

They don't know.

When it's good, it's good.

[ Line ringing ] [ Firecrackers popping ] -Hey.

-Hello.

-[ Laughs ] -What's going on?

-What's going on?

What are you up to?

-Nothing.

Just got off work, ate some food.

Just sitting around being lazy.

-How are you?

-Good.

-Busy?

-I was but not anymore.

[ Fireworks exploding ] [ Indistinct shouting ] -So, how long have you lived in Denver City?

-All my life.

35 years.

-I was...like 10, 11.

It quickly got boring as hell... -[ Laughs ] -...around -- around 14, 15.

[ Clicking ] -How would you, um -- How would you describe Denver City to someone who's never been there before?

-Just a small town.

Very supportive small town.

There's one grocery store.

There's 1, 2, 3, 4... maybe like 10 churches, 11 churches.

Schools, it's just one.

-Yeah, like -- -Like, there's one for each.

-What about gas stations?

-There's five.

-And restaurants?

-Uh, we -- we lost some 'cause of COVID, but we have -- we have about eight.

-I had just turned 21 and I was a bartender at, like, one of the scummiest bars in Hobbs.

-[ Laughs ] -There was a guy in there that worked for Halliburton, and we started talking, and he's like, "Yeah, bro," he's like, "I can get you in."

It's basically like the Army.

Like -- Like, literally, there's recruiters, and they, like -- they -- they promise you the world and you can go wherever you want and see whatever you want and you're gonna make $120,000 a year.

All you got to do is sign on the dotted line.

[ Laughs ] You know?

Me and Chalie had just barely moved in together, like, had our first little house, and she was like, "I'm ready to, like, get married and have babies and, like, buy our own house and plan a future, like, start a family."

And I was like, "Yeah, awesome."

I said, "But it's not gonna happen working at a -- as a bartender," you know.

Like, this was some scummy [bleep]hole that -- You know, people were, like, counting their quarters to get a beer.

They weren't gonna drop you 20 bucks tip, you know.

So I just went and put in an application, and the guy called, and I just kind of went for it.

[ Overlapping talking ] -The record low price of oil.

-The demand for oil is nothing.

-Oil prices have turned negative.

-News on Wall Street today, oil prices plunge below zero.

That is the lowest... -Right here, man.

Show off your muscles.

-No!

-Let's see 'em.

-Here.

-Show Alex, your cousin Alex, your muscles.

Go like that.

Show her!

Look at that, Alex, look at that.

-Damn!

-Oh, man!

-I think it went down, 'cause it always goes down on -- on the election year, and that was scary when it went below zero.

I remember growing up, my friends would move away.

I'd be like, "This is a year they're gonna move again, every four years."

And it just always happens.

It just happens that we got the virus, too.

Get close to her, put your arm behind her.

-[ Laughs ] She's not gonna bite.

-Like, at school, I'm kind of known as the girl that tumbles, the girl that flips.

Politics comes up a lot between me and my friend group.

Yeah.

I don't like talking about politics with my friends 'cause, like, they get, like, angry and one of them gets so judgmental.

I'm just like, "Girl, chill.

We're 15, girl."

Like, if I support Trump and I talk about it, I'm like, "I don't support him as the person he is, but, like, as president, 'cause he's our president, and he supports the oil industry," and my friends are like, "You support a racist and a rapist president."

All these things why I shouldn't.

And I'm just kind of like -- I feel really attacked sometimes.

[ Sizzling ] -I got out in November, and by February, it was -- it was done.

-Do you think you'll go back to the oil field, or are you, like, happy being away from it?

-I'm happy being away from it.

My back doesn't hurt.

My -- Just everything.

General health.

No more oil field.

-How many years did you work in the oil field?

-Like 14.

-That's a while.

-Yeah.

I don't know.

I just -- Just a lot of wasted time, if you ask me.

-I mean -- -Being out there in a damn truck all the time.

[ Both laugh ] -Yeah.

I mean, it probably feels that way now, but, you know, you were providing.

-Yeah.

[ Drums playing ] [ Indistinct shouting ] -I knew you could do it better that time.

[Bleep] yeah!

-Gangster.

-Yes, sir.

-How'd you turn it off?

I was like, "I didn't."

-I told you you could do it better.

I'm glad I interrupted!

-'Cause I was here.

-That was badass.

-Ya me cans.

[ Laughs ] Ah, no seas mamn.

-So how does it feel now?

-Right now you're comfortable.

Like, we're both making money, decent money.

[ Indistinct conversations ] -Do you feel stuck in Denver City?

-No, because it's -- it's different now.

Like, you know what I mean?

Like -- Like -- Like, this weekend, I have three damn shows.

[ Laughs ] I'm not at -- at the beck and call of some oil field tycoon #*#*#*#*#*#*#*.

[ Indistinct conversations ] -How would it feel leaving Denver City?

-It would be sad.

But I've learned that people leave, and if they're, you know, friends, then they keep up.

But I -- everyone left us.

You left me.

Your mom left.

Your grandma left.

You know, my friend Jasmine moved.

Denver City's only for a short while, part of life.

[ Fireworks exploding ] [ People cheering ] -Oh, I will let you go.

Hopefully you got -- you got enough of my blabbering to keep you busy.

[ Laughs ] -Love you, too.

Tell Sam hi.

-Love you and I'll talk to you soon, okay?

-Love you, too.

-Okay.

Bye, sweetie.

-Alright.

Bye.