Neighborhood evacuated after police find 1,700 pounds of fireworks in California

A California police department evacuated a neighborhood northeast of Los Angeles, where officials found some 1,800 pounds of illegal fireworks, local media reports.

In a Facebook post, the Azusa Police Department said it was evacuating the 900 block of West Hollyvale Street at around 3:20 p.m. on June 27. The area is next to I-210, also known as Foothill Freeway.

Investigators from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and officials from the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Arson Unit found “a large amount of illegal fireworks at a nearby residence,” the post said.

Earlier in the day, authorities had found 1,700 pounds of fireworks at a storage facility in Irwindale. That led them to search the Azusa home, ABC7 reported.

The sheriff’s department’s bomb squad responded to the incident, and officials said the neighborhood would be closed for at least five hours, the Facebook post said.

Officials cleared some residents to return to their homes at around 8:46 p.m., but said that ones living on Virginia Avenue or Hollyvale Street still could not. Residents living on those streets were finally cleared to return at 10:17 p.m., according to the post.

Officials evacuated about 27 homes total, ABC 7 reported.

They found 1,800 more pounds of fireworks inside a van at the home, KTLA reported. They also found additional materials for making explosives. One person was taken into custody, but it’s unclear if the person who was arrested lived at the home, according to the outlet.

Residents who had to evacuate were able to stay at a cooling station about 2.5 miles from the neighborhood, KTLA reported.

Azusa is about 23 miles east of Los Angeles.

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