After an explosion, an evacuation of a small Louisiana town and a threatened eviction, military explosives-disassembler Explo Systems Inc. has filed for bankruptcy protection, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Company officials who put the small business into chapter 11 on Monday said in court papers that its has 15 million pounds of “energetic materials”—largely M6 propellant—at its location on the Louisiana National Guard’s Camp Minden. Operating under a military contract, Explo Systems workers had been dismantling unneeded explosives, according to media reports and federal court papers. The company resold explosive material “for reuse in commercial blasting operations” and the remaining scrap metal to recyclers, according to details in a federal lawsuit filed by its insurance company.
