2 Teens Held After Pipe Bomb Explosion Ignites Brush Fire

Two 14-year-old boys were arrested Wednesday night after allegedly crafting eight pipe bombs and detonating one of them, touching off a brush fire.

The two Yorba Linda youths, whose names were withheld because of their age, were arrested on suspicion of manufacturing bombs after the 5:46 p.m. grass fire in the 5700 block of Grandview Avenue led police to one of the boy’s homes, officials said.

The fire charred about 400 square feet of grass behind a home on Grandview, and caused authorities to evacuate several residences. But firefighters doused the blaze before any structures were threatened, according to Capt. Scott Brown of the Orange County Fire Authority.

After admitting they sparked the fire with a bomb, the boys told investigators they had seven more bombs inside the house, police said.

The bombs were fashioned with information from the Internet and “were part of a science project,” Brown said. Three of the bombs were made of metal, the rest with PVC pipe, he said.

The Orange County sheriff’s bomb squad closed down the street and sent in a robot. Late Wednesday night, they were deactivating each of the bombs, officials said.

“These devices are extremely hazardous,” Brown said. “Anybody near these would certainly be injured severely by shrapnel.”