Warning about Homemade ‘Drano Bombs’

Posted on March 17, 2010April 3, 2019 by Rich Buhler & Staff

Claim

A forwarded email cautions readers about large bottles that could contain Drano and aluminum foil — two common household items which when mixed become a bottle bomb.

Rating

True

Reporting

The warning of what law enforcement agencies call a “works bomb” is real. There are various videos posted to the popular YouTube web site that demonstrate how to assemble these bottle bombs.

Iterations of the rumor have circulated since approximately 2009. The version seen in the image above was shared to Facebook on March 13 2009, archived here.

According to a warning issued by the Washtenaw County Sheriff in Ann Arbor, Michigan, bottle bombs are “described as Drano and foil mixed inside a bottle. The chemical reaction makes a volatile build-up of gases and subsequently detonates the bottle with a great amount of force, with the chemical substance in the bottle becoming boiling liquid at that point.”

The warning also said, “The explosion can be severe enough to cause second- or third-degree burns or blindness.” The warning came after sheriff’s deputies responded to two such bombs.

In a June 6, 2009, KCTV in Kansas City, KA reported that such an improvised explosive device exploded in an Eudora residential postal box, which blew the mailbox from the base that held it.

Previously Updated: May 31 2010 (Archived here.)
Last Updated: April 3 2019