San Diego County officials announced last night that they will torch a home “bomb factory” because the huge cache of explosives proved too dangerous to remove manually.
Last week, the San Diego Sheriff’s Department suspended its investigation of the Escondido home of George Djura Jakubec due to dangerous conditions, resulting from at least nine pounds of explosives found in the home.
Jakubec pleaded not guilty last Monday to “12 felony counts of possessing destructive devices and 14 counts of possessing ingredients to make destructive devices, along with two bank robbery charges,” according to KGTV news in San Diego.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Sheriff Bill Gore said at a town hall meeting last night “that burning the house is the only safe way to rid the neighborhood of the explosive materials.” Officials are planning to burn the home between December 8-10, depending on weather conditions, and will close nearby Interstate 15 and evacuate several neighboring homes.
Among the explosives found was Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), the same type of explosive used by shoe bomber Richard Reid in 2001, underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab last Christmas, and the UPS package bombs last month.
