Bethlehem Township Police Department<\/a>, residents and businesses south of Freemansburg Avenue may experience the effects of the blasts.<\/p>\nMonday is expected to be the busiest day, with 23 explosions scheduled to begin around noon. Four additional detonations are planned each day from Tuesday through Thursday, with daily activity expected to conclude by 4 p.m.<\/p>\n
FBI Explosives Training Begins With 23 Detonations Monday<\/p>\n
The FBI training exercise is scheduled to run from October 19 through October 22 at the police range in neighboring Lower Saucon Township.<\/p>\n
Police released the following schedule of expected detonations:<\/p>\n
Monday, October 19: 23 explosions beginning around noon.<\/p>\n
Tuesday, October 20: Four explosions beginning around 10 a.m.<\/p>\n
Wednesday, October 21: Four explosions beginning around 10 a.m.<\/p>\n
Thursday, October 22: Four explosions beginning around 10 a.m.<\/p>\n
All training activity is expected to conclude by 4 p.m. each day.<\/p>\n
The schedule calls for 35 explosions over four days, with nearly two-thirds of the detonations planned for Monday.<\/p>\n
The department did not disclose the types of explosives being used, their quantities or specific details about the training exercises.<\/p>\n
The notice was issued to help residents distinguish the scheduled activity from an unexpected emergency.<\/p>\n
Hospital Campus and Residential Neighborhoods May Hear Blasts<\/p>\n
The training site is located across the Lehigh River from Bethlehem Township, but police warned that the effects of detonations could reach several nearby communities.<\/p>\n
Areas specifically identified in the advisory include St. Luke\u2019s Hospital \u2013 Anderson Campus, The Vineyards, Carter Republic, River View Estates, Old Orchard and Kingsview.<\/p>\n
Residents and businesses south of Freemansburg Avenue were singled out as those potentially affected by the explosions.<\/p>\n
The department did not provide estimates of how loud the blasts would be or how far the sounds might travel.<\/p>\n
The warning is particularly relevant to people living and working near the river, where the scheduled training could be noticeable throughout the four-day period.<\/p>\n
The exercises are being conducted by the FBI, according to township police, rather than as part of a local emergency response.<\/p>\n
Police Urge Residents Not to Call 911 for Scheduled Blasts<\/p>\n
Bethlehem Township police emphasized that residents should reserve 911 calls for actual emergencies, rather than reporting explosions they recognize as part of the scheduled exercise.<\/p>\n
The advisory states, \u201cPLEASE CALL 911 ONLY IF YOU BELIEVE YOU HAVE AN EMERGENCY.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anyone with questions about the training can contact Northampton County Emergency Management at its non-emergency number, 610-759-2200.<\/p>\n
The Lower Saucon Township Police Department<\/a> also issued a community notification confirming that the FBI would conduct pre-scheduled post-blast training at the City of Bethlehem Police Range from October 19 through October 22.<\/p>\nThe department emphasized that the training is planned and should not be cause for alarm.<\/p>\n
Residents around Freemansburg Avenue and the Lehigh River should expect the greatest concentration of scheduled detonations Monday afternoon, followed by smaller sessions Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police warn that loud detonations from federal explosives training could affect nearby neighborhoods, businesses and a hospital campus.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-311332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}