Crews clearing Arlington explosion site one week after blast
ARLINGTON, Va. (DC News Now) — One week after an Arlington duplex exploded during a police standoff, the site has been turned over to the property owners and is being cleared.
On Dec. 4, Arlington County Police Department (ACPD) officers attempted to serve a search warrant at a home on N. Burlington St. in the Bluemont neighborhood where a man had allegedly been firing a flare gun. Around 8:30 that night, after police say they were met with gunfire inside the home, the duplex exploded.
The suspect, 56-year-old James Yoo, was presumed dead after human remains were found inside the wreckage. The other side of the duplex and neighboring homes were evacuated before the explosion.
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Now, all that remains of the duplex is a hole for the structure’s foundation. Excavators worked on Monday to clear the wreckage from the site. The unit neighboring Yoo’s was home to a family of four, including two children. Neighbors said that the family is staying in a hotel nearby.
Other neighbors who’d been evacuated from nearby homes were allowed to return late in the day on Dec. 6.
Police and ATF investigators retrieved materials from the explosion site, which are now being analyzed in a lab. A spokeswoman for the Arlington County Police Department said that analyzing the evidence might take a long time.
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