Not Sewer Gas Or Truck Doors Banging Shut – Lafayette Police Say Pre-Dawn Blasts Are “Intentional Act”

Veteran readers know we have covered reports of sizable and apparently random early-morning explosions here and on our Facebook pages over the years.

Although all sorts of theories were developed as to the source of the blasts over the intervening years – everything from gunfire to methane gas to the banging of delivery truck doors – this site has posited that, given the lack of any evident damage after one of the blasts, that they were likely the result of a black powder enthusiast dropping sizable pyrotechnic devices of some type down local storm drains.

Many of our reports have been centered in Lafayette, notably the downtown area of Moraga Road and Moraga Boulevard, sometimes further along Mt. Diablo Boulevard near the reservoir.

Those unlucky enough to have been awakened by the blasts described “concussive” explosions with a shock wave that often felt as if it had lifted the house of its foundation.

We were thinking, um, M-80 or larger devices, dropped into a confined area to maximize their effect, but suspected the responsible pyrotechnic may actually have been something larger as reports continued to come in, with many of you dismissing the traditional firework theory and concluding the blasts were the result of something larger.

The latest explosion to rock Lafayette occurred early the morning of May 28, with dozens of readers reporting being awakened by a sizable blast. Lafayette police, doing what they do, sought to pinpoint the source of the explosion and reviewed home surveillance video provided by citizens who felt their cameras had captured something useful.

Investigators say they are continuing to develop leads in the case and that the explosion was “an intentional act by an individual, possibly (using an) illegal firework.”

That investigation took an interesting turn after police in Danville developed leads to a “person of interest” who may have witnessed events leading up to the detonation of a “small pipe bomb” which damaged two cars in a shopping center parking lot in their city the morning the Lafayette blast was reported.

So far, investigators from either agency have yet to link the two cases.