KCTV 5Law enforcement groups give explosive demo

Anyone who may have heard an explosion in downtown Kansas City on Wednesday shouldn't be alarmed. Several local police departments, the Kansas Highway Patrol and the FBI showed off the steps they take to keep people safe in a demonstration.

It's a situation no one wants to be in, even the guys who do the job.

"They call it the long and lonely walk because you hear yourself breathing and you try to think about what your job is and, if you can focus on that and not the danger, you'll do a good job," said Mark Vargo with the Overland Park Bomb Unit.

Special bomb units, some members wearing up to 100 pounds of gear, work the Kansas City area year round and their job is to defuse stressful situations.

Wednesday, they opened up to KCTV5 and other members of the media.

"Everything we do is a calculated risk. We try to limit the risk to officers and troopers and bomb techs generally," said John Tucker, an FBI bomb tech.

There are 15 bomb units that work both sides of the state line. Those units combine for around 12 to15 calls a month. Of those calls, two to five are actual live devices.

Live devices are where the robot comes in.

"It takes us, the bomb tech, out of the scene and away from the scene so, if the package were to explode, it'll blow up a robot and not us," said Lex Wallace with the KCMO Bomb Unit.

Every bomb tech in the country is trained in the same academy in Alabama. They have to be re-certified every three years. And that's important because threats are constantly growing and changing.

"We're trying to prepare for that threat. Myself and the other bomb techs have done overseas tours and we've seen a lot of the stuff that's over there and we're briefing our guys so that they know what's going on, so they know what to do to protect the public," said Tucker.

The FBI said most live explosive calls are tossed-out, old grenades.

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