The Coast Guard has warned three unexploded flares may be somewhere in Lake Michigan, after a fourth was found by a lifeguard at a beach on Memorial Day.
Officials revealed Tuesday three still-armed explosives are missing following a joint military exercise with the Coast Guard and the Air Force earlier this month.
During the exercise near Milwaukee, four red-hot flares were deployed, but did not explode upon entering the water, the Coast Guard Sector Lake Michigan warned in a press release. One of the flares was found by a lifeguard on Montrose Beach, Illinois, about a 20-minute drive north of Chicago, on Memorial Day.
Local restaurant worker Zach Alberts recalled the moment that the flare was found.
"These people just started running towards us,” Alberts told ABC7 Chicago. “They thought it was a bomb, and we kind of starting thinking, we've got to shut stuff down.”
"If I saw that, I think I would have walked right past it,” he added.
With three unexploded flares still unaccounted for, the Coast Guard notified beachgoers to “remain clear and contact 911 should they locate a silver shaped cylinder.”
The flares produce red smoke and flame that can reach up to 2,900 degrees.
Lieutenant Joe Neff, public affairs officer for the Coast Guard Sector Lake Michigan, told the public, according to WISN, if someone finds the flares on the beach, “we don't want you to pick it up.”
He continued, “If it is still armed and it were to activate, 2900 degrees is pretty extreme.”
Farheen Hakeem, a mother who was at Bradford Beach in Milwaukee on Tuesday, told WISN, “It's very nerve-wracking, actually, because my child is running around playing, having fun. You know, you can easily pick that up, just out of curiosity.”
“If you told me this two hours ago, I wouldn't have come here with her,” she added.
