The discovery of a home-made explosive device in a chimney at a Bay Terraces home prompted authorities to clear part of the neighborhood Wednesday and call in a bomb squad, which safely detonated the device.
A SWAT team found the pipe bomb about 8:30 a.m. while serving a search warrant at the house on Big Oak Street, near Kingswood Street, at the request of the district attorney's office, according to San Diego police.
Officers evacuated homes within a 700-foot radius as a precaution and called in the Metro Arson Strike Team to dispose of the device, said San Diego police Lt. Andra Brown. The bomb squad destroyed the roughly foot-long cylinder shortly before noon, after which neighborhood residents were allowed to return to their homes.
The special-weapons and tactics squad served the warrant because a man who lives in the home has a history of possessing illegal explosives, according to police.
That resident was arrested on undisclosed charges. His name was not immediately available.
Authorities declined to release details of the investigation, other than to say it was headed by the Computer and Technology Crime High-Tech Response Team, a regional agency staffed by local, state and federal law enforcement personnel.
