California house with bombs set ablaze

Firefightershave set ablazea Southern California home filled with a cache of homemade explosives.

The bungalow on the outskirts of Escondido was so packed with explosives that it was deemed too dangerous toenter to remove the material safely.

Instead, fire officials sent in remotely controlled devices toignitethe house and destroy it in a controlled manner,after nearby homes were cleared of dozens ofoccupants.

The devices went off as planned at about 11 a.m. PT. At first, smoke columnscould be seen shooting through the roof of the building. Then bright orangeflames started to consume the structure, as black and grey smoke billowed several metresinto the sky.

Within less than an hour, most of the house was in ruins.

Aruling by U.S. District Judge Larry Burns had cleared the way for authorities to burn the hometo the ground on Thursday.

About 40 bomb experts and eight national laboratories devised the plan to burn down the home on a nearlyhalf-hectare lot near a busy, eight-lane freeway.Crews erected afirewall to protect the closest homes from heat and fire damage.

Police have charged George Jakubec, whois renting the home, with possessing and manufacturing destructive devices, as well as robbing banks. Jakubec has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

In legal papers filed before the hearing, prosecutors said a coffee table in the home that authorities have called a bomb factory was covered with a virtual assembly line of detonators and a substance so explosive that it could be set it off by simply shifting nearby papers.

"But what has complicated the investigation is the astonishing amount of clutter in the house," CBC's Keith Boag said. "Apparently the place is so strewn with chemicals, explosives and ammunition that it's not possible for people to enter safely or for robots to move around in it effectively."

Local law enforcement and fire officialswere on the scene Thursday,working with representatives froma number of government agencies, including the National Guard andthe Environmental Protection Agency, Boag said

Officials hadhoped to start the fire around9 a.m. PT, butpushed the time back. Authoritieswanted to make sure winds didn't blow the smoke over nearby homes.