BURIEN, Wash. — The King County Sheriff's Office (KCSO) is investigating an explosion in Burien over the weekend.
Multiple 911 callers alerted authorities on Friday just after 5:15 p.m. for reports of an explosion near the intersection of South 116th Street and 1st Avenue South in Burien. The callers reported hearing an explosion, seeing an explosion or nearly being struck by an exploding object while driving in traffic, according to the KCSO.
Burien police found remnants of an improvised explosive device that was tossed onto the road. Investigators determined no one was injured from the explosion but at least one carload of people was "shaken up" because of proximity to the blast.
Authorities did not confirm whether the Friday explosion was related to a bomb scare that shut down Interstate 90 for hours on Saturday. Both directions of I-90 were closed for about three hours after police said a suspect attempted to light an explosive device while running away from officers.
The KCSO Bomb Disposal Unit is investigating the Burien explosion.
A Spanish-speaking witness to the incident spoke to KING 5, and a kind neighbor helped to translate.
"The apartment, like, shake," said Francisco Karloz, who lives nearby. "So many times.”
There are several apartments in the area, as well as a daycare and a church.
A moving car missed the explosion by only a matter of feet, and it turned out that car was being driven by John Richards, a beloved morning show radio DJ with KEXP.
No one in his car was injured, but Richards took to Instagram, writing, "We immediately had to pull over, our ears ringing… I don’t know why someone did this, I suspect they will get more brave and do more damage which is scary. My son is traumatized by this, and honestly, it shook us up.”
The many residents in the area are also shaken up.
"Scared what will happen," said Karloz.
He said he's hoping for more police to patrol and protect them from future bomb scares.
"When the kids, like, want to go to school, and they’re thinking that happened, it’s like... dangerous to the kids, the people walking," said Karloz.
KING 5 showed surveillance video of the incident to Brennan Phillips, a longtime expert in the field of explosives in the Pacific Northwest.
"A lot of white smoke. So that would be very indicative of these flash powder devices," said Phillips. who is retired now, but worked for two decades as the lead officer for the local explosives wings of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
He says these types of devices are "very easy to make," and unfortunately are not uncommon.
"My experience is the local, you know, prosecutor's office and U.S. attorney's office takes a pretty dim view of that in our region, and the consequences are pretty severe," said Phillips.