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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Feared pipe bomb was cluster of July 4 sparklers

Sheriff’s deputies detonated what they had feared was a pipe bomb left outside of an East Trent Avenue bar in Spokane Valley on Monday. The device turned out to be a sparkler bomb, a bane of summer fireworks sales that routinely causes injuries and even kills people, said sheriff’s Deputy Matt Lyons. Investigators will pick apart the remnants of the device to determine if it amounts to more than juvenile mischief. The janitor at the Rock Bar, formerly the Bottoms Up Tavern, called for help when he found a 6- to 8-inch-long duct-tape-wrapped device lying outside the front of the bar at 4 p.m. Disposing of it required more than a dozen deputies and the high-tech wizardry of a bomb squad robot, and halted rush-hour traffic. The bomb squad detonated the device behind the brick union hall of Steelworkers Local 388.