Residents Hope ‘Bomb Factory' Town Hall Will Offer Answers

Nearly two weeks after a mysterious explosion in a North County neighborhood -- and the discovery of a house full of explosives -- there are still a lot of questions.

Local residents are hoping many of those questions will be answered Tuesday night at a meeting with local, state and federal officials on hand. Many of the people living in the neighborhood have yet to return to their homes.

"We've had the doors and windows closed," Sharon Freitis said. "We've been getting messages on the answering machine to keep away from the windows ... I haven't really been in this area at all. I've stayed away."

On Tuesday, the San Diego County Sheriff's bomb/arson crew was on the scene. It's been 12 days since the initial explosion injured a man mowing a lawn in the back yard of the house in the 1950 block of Via Scott. That incident led to the discovery of a houseful of very volatile HMDT, possibly the largest stockpile of the explosive ever found in the U.S.
   
The man renting the house, 54-year-old George Jakubec, was arrested and has pleaded not guilty to 28 charges.
   
Throughout the last two weeks, the sheriff's department has been making reverse 911 calls to inform residents about any developments, including a call to notify people about Tuesday night's meeting.
   
The main obstacle facing the bomb/arson squad seems to be how to remove several containers of explosive material from the house. Because of the risks, some residents have been kept out of their homes, able only to return for short periods of time.
   
A man who lives next door to Jakubec's house said he just wants to know when this will all be over.

"You know, we have a home-based business there, and we're not able to go back and do what we need to do to pay the bills," Alan Haghighi said. "I don't know. It's just been a rough time. I look forward to getting this resolved later tonight. Hopefully, they'll give us some information that'll get us back in our homes soon."

Officials have not previewed any details on what they plan on discussing at Tuesday night's meeting, which is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Woodland Park Middle School, at 1270 Rock Springs Road in nearby San Marcos.
 

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