Public Safety

Attorney Looks To Delay Burning of Escondido 'Bomb Factory' Home

By Ed Joyce / Reporter

Published December 7, 2010 at 10:55 AM PST

This story was published more than 14 years ago.

Behind these trees on the left is the home containing explosive compounds. The Escondido home is set to be burned Thursday morning

Attorney Looks To Delay Burning of Escondido 'Bomb Factory' Home

The San Diego County Sheriff's Department said an Escondido house that contains bomb-making compounds will be burned Thursday instead of Wednesday.

The San Diego County Sheriff's Department said an Escondido house that contains bomb-making compounds will be burned Thursday instead of Wednesday.

Officials said an inversion layer would spread smoke horizontally from the burning house over a wider area.

But the layer is expected to be gone Thursday.

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San Diego County Sheriffs Department spokeswoman Jan Caldwell said bomb technicians will prepare the house that morning.

"They're going to make the structure itself act as a chimney," Caldwell said. "So they're going to ensure that the house starts at a very high, hot fast burn, consumes those hazardous materials within the first hour. Then it's simply a structure fire they will monitor."

She said burning the home is the best way to destroy the highly unstable explosive compounds, which will be vaporized by the fire.

Some neighborhood residents will be evacuated and nearby Interstate-15 will be closed in both directions for at least two hours.

San Diego County air quality officials say the smoke and any ash from the burning home is minimal compared to recent wildfires in the county.

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Caldwell said the house is scheduled to be burned between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Thursday.

Alan Landsman has lived in the neighborhood of well-kept homes for 12 years.

He said he's not worried about the controlled burn of the house just 300 yards away from his home.

"I have a lot of confidence in the government that's taking care of this for me," said Landsman as he worked in his garage. "I'm not worried about it because the law enforcement response has been so overwhelming that I feel as though I'm in good hands."

"And that's why I'm relaxed," he added with a smile.

Prosecutors say George Jakubec was running a virtual bomb-making factory in the Escondido home. He has pleaded not guilty.

Caldwell said the inside of the home is a cluttered mess of floor-to-ceiling junk and explosives that included 13 unfinished shrapnel grenades.

Bomb experts previously pulled out about nine pounds of explosive material and detonated it.

Nearby residents who have been told to evacuate are asked to do so Wednesday evening.

Public Safety

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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