San Diego

San Diego Fire Department ordnance and bomb experts spent a second night Tuesday in an isolated area of Balboa Park along 28th Street near Grape Street defusing pipe bombs. Two bombs were found Tuesday afternoon by the same hiker who uncovered a cache of 11 pipe bombs Monday afternoon.

The two bombs Tuesday were X-rayed at the scene by fire officials and shown not to be filled with significant explosives. Nevertheless, the homemade bombs were blown apart later in the evening as a precaution, Fire Department spokesman Larry Cook said. The 11 bombs on Monday were also detonated at the scene, and fragments were sent for examination to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms office in San Francisco. Federal investigators will check the fragments for fingerprints and other evidence that could indicate the origin of the devices.

The bombs were not exceptional in terms of design although the cache was the largest ever found in San Diego, Detective Moe Jarvis of the Metro Arson Strike Team said. All of them apparently had been in the isolated canyon for some time.

The hiker who discovered both sets of bombs, Andrew McClenathan, 23, was booked Tuesday night on an outstanding police warrant unrelated to the bombs, Cook said. He said there was no evidence to link McClenathan to the devices.

The arson team will search the canyon again today, Cook said.