West Bountiful police lifted a mandatory evacuation order on Monday after a Davis County bomb squad removed potentially dangerous explosives from a neighborhood near 1450 North and 1100 West. The area had been cleared for several hours while officers dealt with old dynamite found on a property in the 1400 block of North 1100 West.
The case began Sunday at 1425 N. 1100 West, where police were called to a report of a domestic violence incident. During that arrest, Dwayne Raymond Hughes' son told officers that his father possessed explosives on his property. After the son was booked into jail, police returned to Hughes' home and found a container in the backyard holding a collection of dynamite. It sat directly next to a 2,500-gallon tank of diesel fuel, and officers also saw an empty box with an explosives placard in the yard.
Hughes, 80, was booked into the Davis County Jail on Sunday night for investigation of possessing explosives, unlawful possession of fireworks and reckless endangerment. Police said the dynamite was manufactured in the 1980s and had likely been stored on the property for an undisclosed period without proper authority. The arrestee was taken to the West Bountiful Police Department for questioning, but did not agree to speak with investigators and wanted legal counsel present.
After Hughes was booked and officers obtained a search warrant for the property, the bomb squad warned that a large-scale evacuation could be needed depending on what was found inside the home. That warning led police to order people out of the area around 1450 North and 1100 West on Monday morning and to temporarily close Legacy Highway between 500 South and Parrish Lane while crews worked.
The evacuation was lifted once the explosives were removed, ending a tense morning that started with a domestic violence call and widened into a bomb squad response. What remains is the more troubling fact behind the operation: police say old dynamite was being kept next to diesel fuel in a residential yard, and they are still sorting out how long it had been there.
