On Saturday, Butte-Silver Bow police and firefighters called on the Missoula County Sheriff's Department Bomb Team to defuse an explosive device inside a local residence.

The Associated Press reports that a 32 year-old Butte man had committed suicide from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, but was also wounded after a homemade bomb exploded in his house.

Lieutenant Jeremy Meeder with the Missoula County Sheriff's Office traveled to Butte to assist in defusing more explosive devices.

"They had already had one explosion in the house, and they had one individual inside that was deceased," Meeder said. "We went over there and entered the home, to find that there was another explosive device that had been put together. It was a pretty basic one that had been put together by mixing some powders and he had already finished one that had gone off and we disabled the second one for them."

Meeder described the protective gear used as he disabled the device.

"I wore a DOD EOD 9 bomb suit which will protect you in some circumstances," he said. "I disabled the device so the Butte-Silver Bow personnel could go in and deal with the victim."

Meeder said the Bomb Team is regional in scope.

"How the Bomb Team is set up is that they're managed by the FBI and placed strategically throughout the United States," he said. "Missoula's team is responsible for western Montana. We do have a satellite team that's part of the Missoula team that's based out of Helena, and then Billings handles the eastern half of the state. Once bomb techs are selected, they go attend the Hazardous Devices School in Anniston, Alabama for six to nine weeks. We have training at least sixteen hours a month, and then we have to recertify the Hazardous Devices school every three years and we also have one week of advanced training every single year."

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