The usual silence was shaken out of Wyrick Avenue on Thursday when San Jose's Bomb Squad, police, and fire departments had to defuse a potentially volatile situation, inside a house.
They were arresting the homeowner, Kevin Macyes, for an unrelated burglary charge when police found 19 sticks of dynamite and blasting caps in the garage.
"That's scary. It makes you wonder what other people might have," said Edith Mccoy, a neighbor.
After arresting the homeowner, police created two sandbag barriers to safely destroy the items. They put the blasting caps in one location in the front of the yard to detonate it and a few feet away also dug a pit to burn the dynamite. Flames reached six feet in height at times.
"It's safer than moving it through any other neighborhoods, we like to get rid of it in place so that we can keep it safely contained," said Lt. Rob Millard, from the San Jose Police Department.
To ensure the neighborhoods safety, 50 homes all along Wyrick Avenue were evacuated. Many stood on the street and waited for hours.
"We just want to go to bed," said one neighbor with a child.
"My dad has medicine he needs to be taking, my husband has heart medicine he needs to be taking. It is a big inconvenience. I'm really not happy with my neighbor right now," said Joan Wilson, a neighbor.
While police took bags of evidence out of the house, they found no more explosives.
