x
Breaking News
More () »

What's next for the bomb house site?

What's next for the bomb house site?

ESCONDIDO (CBS 8) - Now that a house that was filled with dangerous explosives has been destroyed, there are questions about what will happen to the property.

Weeks of planning paid off perfectly. The fire started exactly where it was supposed to -- the places where the highest concentration of explosives were stored.

"It was actually a very planned event from room to room throughout the house and it actually burned exactly as planned," San Marcos Fire Dept. Chief Todd Newman said.

The fire started nearly two hours later than scheduled because Mother Nature didn't cooperate. The inversion layer burned off later than expected and there was no way it was starting until that high level of warm air was gone.

"The smoke would go up quickly and hit an inversion lid, you would see smoke hit a right turn and go back down to ground level and we'd get a lot of complaints about the smoke," Robert Kard of County Air Pollution Control said.

By waiting, the smoke shot straight up away from homes, reducing the risk to dangerous toxins.

"They had over 40 sensors up during the burn and the sensors, I'm happy to report, probably were lower during the fire than when the I-15 was open," Sheriff Bill Gore said.

The fire burned fast and hot, and wiped out several explosive devices.

It's hoped that the intense heat neutralized the chemicals found in such mass quantities. Authorities had labeled the home a "bomb factory".

I think it was just a ticking time bomb waiting to go off and fortunately it didn't," Sheriff Gore said.

The flames did accidentally spread to some nearby bushes, but firefighters quickly put them out. No other homes damaged, and no injuries reported.

As for what's next, on Friday the bomb-arson squad will go through the rubble to make sure the fire did what it was supposed to do. But at this point officials have no doubt this was a job well done.

"I guarantee if there's a similar situation in the United States, this is the incident that will be studied on how to handle it," Sheriff Gore said.

Before You Leave, Check This Out