Uranium, blasting caps found in Spokane Valley garage

A hazardous materials response was triggered Thursday when a woman reported finding uranium and blasting caps in her garage.

“A nice lady called our administration building this morning asking how she could safely dispose of blasting caps and uranium,” Spokane Valley Fire Department spokeswoman Melanie Rose said.

The area immediately around the home at 15th Avenue and Walnut Street was shut down while the Spokane Fire Department hazardous materials team and the Sheriff’s Office bomb squad responded.

The uranium was in a glass peanut butter jar inside a paper bag. Crews did not examine it closely, Rose said. “Tests show it was radioactive.”

The danger zone was limited to within 2 to 5 feet of the uranium, which Rose said the woman described as a rock.

The bomb squad took possession of more than a dozen blasting caps.

The woman’s husband and father-in-law were both miners in the Silver Valley and brought home the items decades ago, Rose said.

The woman’s husband died recently, and she found the items while she was cleaning.