SUFFOLK, Va. — Author's note: The video above is from a separate story about Suffolk Fire-Rescue that first aired in September 2020.
Construction workers stumbled on a grenade while they were working in Suffolk Tuesday. The unexploded device was found in an area that once housed the Nansemond Ordnance Depot.
A spokesman for the City of Suffolk said the crews found it as they were digging in the 6600 block of College Drive around 2:30 p.m. in the Harbour View section of the city.
The Fire & Rescue department went to help, along with the Virginia State Police Bomb Squad and city police officers. The bomb squad removed the grenade, and no one was hurt.
State Police said the recovered grenade was not live ordnance.
The Nansemond Ordnance Depot was built in 1917, during WWI, to store and help transport munitions overseas. The military stopped using the depot in 1960.
Today, the area that used to be the munitions facility covers about 970 acres of land in Suffolk.