Mission Viejo Explosion May Have Been Drug Related: Cops

MISSION VIEJO, CA — Orange County Sheriff's Bomb Squad and Orange County Fire Authority's Hazardous Materials Team both searched a Mission Viejo garage following an explosion on Monday. An unnamed man was injured in the blast, and self-transported with major burns to a nearby hospital, officials said.

The garage door of a home on the 23000 block of Via Ronda took the brunt of the damage, according to reports from OCSD Lt. Lane Lagaret. Another man and woman were inside the home at the time of the incident, however they were not injured, according to Lagaret.

"(The explosion) occurred some time before 5 a.m.," Lagaret said. "The (injured) man drove himself to Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo with severe burns to his upper torso."

He was later transferred to Orange County Global Medical Center, according to a report from the Orange County Register. That hospital houses the Orange County Burn Center, an intensive care seven-bed unit staffed by experienced burn professionals.

"The man sustained second-and third-degree burns," Orange County Fire Authority Captain Larry Kurtz said.

OCFA's Hazardous materials team and the Orange County Sheriff's Department bomb squad both reported to the home on Via Ronda Monday, to investigate the cause of the damage.

As of this report, there was no word as to whether the cause was indeed from a drug operation.

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