Medford, Ore. — Residents in a west Medford neighborhood are on edge after an explosion early Wednesday morning on 3rd and Holly Street. The blast was so big it brought out five Medford fire engines and police. They couldn’t pinpoint exactly what happened because all that was left was a smokey haze, but a neighbor caught everything on surveillance video.
“It wasn’t a firecracker, it was a bomb. A homemade bomb. I believe it,” neighbor Jimmy Benedict said.
Benedict didn’t get much sleep after the blast jolted him awake around 1:30 a.m. Surveillance footage from a neighbor’s home shows a man on a bike stop just feet away from Benedict’s camper parked on 3rd street then ride away before the explosion.
“It rattled the whole neighborhood, rattled it. You can ask anybody,” he said.
Video from the front of the house gives a better picture of the suspect on the bike hurrying to get away. Benedict said several neighbors came outside to see what happened. Medford police are now investigating and said it could have been a homemade bomb, an improvised explosive device, or an illegal firework.
“It’s certainly not a firecracker, it’s not an m80, it’s something that woke up quite a bit of the neighborhood,” Sergeant Brent Mak said.
Benedict said he’s just happy everyone on his street is safe, and he hopes the surveillance video can point police to the suspect.
“You can see powder burn over here, stuff blown all over the place. I had a gas can right here it could have set me on fire. It’s not right,” he said.
Medford police said no one was injured and there have been no reports of property damage. They ask anyone who may have seen suspicious activity to call police.
© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.