PUYALLUP — Investigators have found a body located in the rumble of a South Hill house that was heavily damaged when an explosion engulfed it in flames late Monday.
The body was discovered during a search of the house Tuesday morning, Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said. Investigators believe they know the person’s identity but were not releasing any more details.
Sheriff’s deputies and firefighters spent most of the night at the house, monitoring the fire and checking for other explosive devices.
Officials blocked off roads and evacuated some neighbors for periods throughout the night. By daylight, the fire was still smoldering and officials were working to clean up the scene, Troyer said. However, area children were able to get off to school.
“The explosion was pretty powerful,” Troyer said Tuesday. “This wasn’t a little explosion. This was the real deal.”
The event began just before 11 p.m. Monday when the couple who lives at the home called 911. Their roommate, a 26-year-old man who is a registered Level 1 sex offender, had been acting strangely and making explosive devices, Troyer said.
Deputies responded to the house and found the man inside the kitchen. The man quickly grabbed a duffel bag, bottles and a few other items and ran upstairs, Troyer said. He switched on heavy-metal music and turned the volume up.
The deputies recognized some of items in the bag as components of explosive devices. The deputies evacuated the couple and themselves from the house and called for back up.
“They recognized what was going on,” Troyer said.
Deputies surrounded the house and secured the scene. Within 10 minutes, a large blast rocked the house, blowing out the windows and window frames and igniting a large fire.
“It blew the second story off the house,” Troyer said. “Our deputies were standing 75 to 100 yards away. It drenched our deputies in beauty bark and dirt.”
Firefighters responded to the scene but didn’t go inside the house to fight the blaze because officials could hear popping sounds and other explosions. Firefighters did keep the fire contained to the house, Troyer said.
The sheriff’s office’s bomb squad was called to the scene. Because of the man’s behavior and the likelihood of other explosive devices, the squad checked the man’s cars that were parked outside. The squad disrupted suspicious packages found inside the cars.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
