West Bountiful police lifted a mandatory evacuation Monday for a neighborhood near 1450 North and 1100 West after officers and a bomb squad removed potentially dangerous explosives from the area. The order had been in place for several hours and prompted a temporary closure of the Legacy Highway between 500 South and Parrish Lane.
The evacuation came after police arrested Dwayne Raymond Hughes, 80, on Sunday night for investigation of possessing explosives, unlawful possession of fireworks and reckless endangerment. Police first went to 1425 N. 1100 West on a report of a domestic violence incident, and Hughes’ son was arrested in that case before telling officers that his father possessed explosives on the property.
Police returned to the home after the son was booked into jail to check the claim. In the backyard, Hughes showed officers a container holding a collection of dynamite that sat directly beside a 2,500-gallon tank of diesel fuel, according to the booking affidavit. An empty box with an explosives placard was also seen in the yard, and police said blasting caps and other explosive devices might have been inside the residence.
The Davis County bomb squad was called to the scene. Officers said the dynamite was manufactured in the 1980s and likely had been stored on the property for an undisclosed period without proper authority. Hughes was taken to the West Bountiful Police Department for questioning and did not agree to speak with investigators without legal counsel present.
After Hughes was booked and police 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 possibility turned into the morning evacuation, while crews removed the explosives and secured the area before lifting the order later Monday.
The sequence left a quiet neighborhood briefly under emergency control over old dynamite, a domestic violence call and the chance that more devices were still inside the house. With the evacuation now lifted, the immediate threat appears to have been cleared, but the investigation into how the explosives were stored there and what else may have been on the property is not over.
