A 38-year-old man was charged Friday with several felonies stemming from an explosion at a condominium in an unincorporated area near Tustin.
Kevin Sean Welch was charged with three counts of possession of a destructive device or explosives in or near private residences, two counts of use of a destructive device with the intent to injure, and single counts each of intent to unlawfully make a destructive device and possession of unregistered dangerous fireworks, all felonies, as well as a misdemeanor count of possession of fireworks without a permit.
Welch was being held on $1 million bail.
Deputies were called just before 9 a.m., Wednesday, to a condo in the 12700 block of Newport Avenue, Carrie Braun of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said.
When deputies got to the home, a man who lived there admitted there was a “loud explosion, but he wasn’t being very forthcoming with deputies,” Braun said.
The deputies saw that a terra cotta chiminea-type object had been blown apart in Welch’s yard, with a piece of shrapnel landing in a neighbor’s yard, Braun said. They also spotted what appeared to be a pipe bomb.
Deputies evacuated residents of four neighboring condominiums, Braun said. Newport Avenue was closed from Wass Street to Warren Avenue.
Deputies disassembled the pipe bomb in the condo just after 4 p.m. and collected a large amount of bomb-making materials in the residence, Braun said.