DEER PARK — The Deer Park High School band got an unexpected accompaniment Thursday during the “1812 Overture” at the annual ice cream social.

        While families were listening to the music in the high school's front yard, the Hamilton County Bomb Squad was in the back of the school detonating a jar of dinitrobenzoyl chloride that had crystallized. The blast came about the same time as the crescendo.

        “It was very, very appropriate,” said Don Newman, chief of the Deer Park-Silverton Joint Fire District. “People had no idea what we were doing. It worked out pretty well.”

        Deer Park Police and the fire department were called to the school around 6 p.m. after science teachers Mike Geyer and Bob Fite found the jar while cleaning out and inventorying the chemistry storage closet.

        “It had been there for decades and had a "Do Not Touch' label,” said principal Gary Brooks. “It had the potential to be unstable and we weren't sure if it was more or less stable in a crystal form so we called the police and fire departments.”

        The chemical in its liquid form was used to clean equipment and is one that is commonly used in high-school chemistry classes, Mr. Brooks said.

        School officials estimated by its labeling that it had been in storage for 30 years. It was found in a locked area to which students did not have access. No other chemical was within a foot of it.

        “It was stored properly and posed no danger to anyone who would have been back there,” Mr. Brooks said.

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