BONNERS FERRY - A local resident discovered a crude bomb in the Valley View Elementary School parking lot Sunday morning.

Barry Pauls, who was walking his dog, spotted a suspicious device at 7:06 a.m., which turned out to be the bomb and resulted in an area around Valley View Elementary being blocked off for much of the day pending the arrival of the Spokane Bomb Squad. The bomb was safely disabled at about 6 p.m. Sunday.

According to Boundary County Emergency Management Incident Commander Bob Graham, the device was discovered in the north drive of the school, about 66 feet from the school building. Police suspect the device had been placed sometime after 9:30 p.m. Saturday, when Pauls had walked his dog by the same spot without seeing the device.

At first, officers responding couldn't tell what the device consisted of because it was entirely encased in duct tape, with a three-foot fuse protruding from the end.

Graham said the fuse, made of firecracker fuses braided together and duct-taped at the joints, had burned to within six inches of the device before it failed.

The bomb squad disabled the device with a high-pressure jet of water and determined it consisted of a plastic bottle filled with gasoline-soaked cotton.

An investigation continues.