An Overland Park man appeared in court Friday after trying to make homemade fireworks earlier this month, police said.
On June 9, fire crews were called to a house in the 11200 block of Eby Street where they found Jonathan Hoffman mixing chemicals.
Officials said exposure to the chemicals landed Hoffman in the hospital with serious burns on his body.
While the fire crews and some officers were inside the residence, their eyes and throats began to burn. They left immediately and called in the Overland Park Bomb Squad, officials said.
“There were a bunch of fire trucks, police cars out front," said neighbor Christian Warren."Police had their bulletproof shields... I was worried."
After obtaining a search warrant, officials searched the home and found bomb-making materials inside.
The FBI has been notified of the incident.
The Johnson County Prosecutor's Office charged Hoffman for possessing a pipe bomb that officers discovered during their investigation.
According to Overland Park Police, Hoffman told detectives he was attempting to make M-80s, a type of relatively powerful firework, at his home. He apparently said he had done so successfully in the past.
As an agency, ATF responds to 800 cases of illegal fireworks operations nationwide every year. In the Kansas City Metro, they investigate around a dozen cases annually, officials said.
“We see a lot more cases now with people buying the consumer fireworks from the tent, getting them home, cutting them open and trying to make another device," said John Ham, an ATF spokesperson, who spoke Friday with 41 Action News.
Ham adds the danger heightens when mixing the materials in any kind of DIY situation.
“The act of cutting those shells open, whether you're using a knife or anything you use, causes enough friction and causes that to go off, and you're standing right over it and all of a sudden you're seriously injured or you’re dead,” Ham said.
After the hearing, Hoffman’s attorney told 41 Action news his client wasn’t planning to do anything nefarious.
“I don't know if his family knew what was going on... I hope he gets his act together because that's really scary,” said Warren, the neighbor.
Officials arrested Hoffman Thursday. At Hoffman’s first court appearance Friday, the judge reduced his bond from $50,000 to $10,000.
A judge set his next hearing for 11 a.m. June 29.
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