SEATTLE (AP) - Two teenage boys apparently working on a school science project involving model rockets were seriously injured after an explosion at a Seattle home, police said late Sunday.
The boys are cousins and suffered fragmentation wounds in the blast that knocked out windows in the living room and kitchen and shot debris into the backyard, Detective Renee Witt said in a statement.
Authorities received a report of the loud explosion at the home of one of the teens just before noon Sunday.
The injured boys were taken to a local hospital. Seattle fire Lt. Sue Stangl told the Seattle Times (https://bit.ly/1dXIVKL ) that the boys, who weren’t named, were transported in serious condition.
The father of one of the teens was sleeping in another room but wasn’t injured, Witt said. Police said he told them that his son and his nephew were working on a project involving model rockets.
Witt said he told police he thought the boys were trying to start a fire in a fireplace and used some of the rocket fuel to get it going or were testing the mixture.
Seattle police’s Arson & Bomb Unit was investigating. Witt said more explosives were found, including several finished homemade fireworks bottle rockets, small aerial display mortars and a skyrocket.
She said supplies to build more explosives were found and seized. Police don’t think something larger than the small explosive devices was being built.
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Information from: The Seattle Times, https://www.seattletimes.com
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