Supervisors to vote on declaration of emergency for Escondido home

SAN DIEGO - The San Diego County Board of Supervisors today will vote on whether to ratify a declaration of a local emergency regarding the rented Escondido home where a man was accused of making bombs and storing large amounts of explosives.

The emergency declaration is necessary to allow authorities to burn down the house this week, determined to be the only way to render the site safe.

Monday, George Djura Jakubec pleaded not guilty to eight federal charges and was ordered held without bail.

Jakubec, who was born in Serbia, is charged with making and possessing destructive devices as well as robbing three banks and trying to rob a fourth over the past two years.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Rees Morgan refused to comment on whether more charges might be forthcoming.

In a brief hearing at in U.S. District Court, Magistrate Judge Ruben Brooks ordered Jakubec held without bail, saying the 54-year-old defendant would be a risk to flee and a danger to the community if released.

Investigators and attorneys have disclosed no suspected motive for the defendant's alleged bomb-making activities at the house he shared with his wife.

A federal indictment handed up last week alleges that on or before Nov. 18, Jakubec made destructive devices, including nine detonators and 13 grenade hulls, along with unknown quantities of high explosives.

The purported crimes came to light last month after a landscaper, 49- year-old Mario Garcia of Fallbrook, stepped on and detonated something akin to a mine in Jakubec's back yard, suffering serious injuries.

The cache of compounds -- including substances used by suicide bombers and the so-called underwear and shoe bombers -- was ''the largest quantity of these types of homemade explosives (ever found) at one place in the United States,'' Deputy District Attorney Terri Perez said at Jakubec's Nov. 22 arraignment in state court.

Perez told a judge the defendant had turned his home into a ''bomb factory.''

According to court records, Jakubec admitted to authorities that he had robbed three banks and kept explosives and other weapons at his home.

Bomb experts decided that burning down the house was the safest way to dispose of the large amount of hazardous bomb-making chemicals, the discovery of which prompted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to declare San Diego County a disaster area.

The controlled fire is expected to happen Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.

To prepare for the destruction of the residence, crews erected a 16-foot- high metal-framed wall covered with fire-resistant dry wall alongside it to the north. The barrier, which also will be coated with flame-retardant gel, will protect the nearest neighbor's home, sheriff's spokeswoman Melissa Aquino said.

Workers also removed shrubs, trees and wooden fences that could catch fire during the burn, which will take place when climatic conditions -- notably wind patterns -- are as favorable as possible for this time of year.

The county Air Pollution Control District installed a portable weather station on the roof of nearby Escondido Fire Department Fire Station 3 to get real-time readings and ''minimize surprises'' on the day of the burn, Aquino said.

Hazardous-materials experts, meanwhile, have been strategizing on air monitoring to take place during the prescribed blaze and planning for the subsequent clean-up task.

The state Department of Toxic Substances Control has agreed to fund removal of all the debris from the site except for the house's concrete slab.

Sheriff's officials also have been meeting with Escondido police and firefighting personnel to plan the evacuation of dozens of homes and traffic- control measures that will be necessary on the day of the controlled fire, Aquino said.

A stretch of nearby Interstate 15 also will be closed during the operation due to its proximity to the contaminated house. CNS-12-07-2010 02:58