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A Morgan Hill man arrested last week on suspicion of making explosives in his home has a history of bomb and drug related offenses, according to police reports and news archives.The police reports state that after initially denying that he was making explosives, Dennis Fritsinger later admitted to officers who responded to his home that he intentionally detonated a mixture of chemicals in his backyard.Fritsinger, 63, was arrested by Morgan Hill Police March 13 at his home on the 17700 block of McLaughlin Court, after his neighbors heard a series of explosions outside the residence over the previous days.On March 15, Fritsinger was charged at the South County Courthouse with one count of possession of a destructive device and one count of possession of materials with intent to make a destructive device or explosive, according to Santa Clara County Supervising Deputy District Attorney Vishal Bathija. Fritsinger’s next hearing is scheduled for 1:30pm March 23, when he is expected to enter a plea.Both charges are felonies, and his maximum sentence, if convicted, is four years, eight months in prison, according to Bathija. Fritsinger is being held at Santa Clara County Jail on $200,000 bail.According to sfgate.com, Fritsinger was convicted in 2000 of three counts of bomb possession, two counts of possessing assault rifles, three counts of possessing silencers, one count of manufacturing methamphetamine and possessing chemicals to make meth.Fritsinger was a resident of Cupertino when he was arrested for those crimes, according to sfgate, a website published by the San Francisco Chronicle.Morgan Hill Police reports of the incident, found in the court file, describe a few tense moments as the first responding officers were notified over the radio of Fritsinger’s criminal history just before they noticed test tubes, beakers and other suspicious chemistry-related materials in his garage.Officers initially responded to Fritsinger’s home after neighbors reported two explosions the afternoon and early evening of March 12. Police could not locate the source of the first explosion. But after a neighbor offered more details on the second explosion, about 6pm March 12, police pinpointed Fritsinger’s home as the source, according to the court file.One neighbor told MHPD dispatch over the phone that the 6pm explosion sent clumps of mud and other debris onto the neighbor’s next-door home and over the roof, according to the court file. The neighbor looked over the fence and saw a small crater in Fritsinger’s backyard with smoke coming out of it.Neighbors also phoned police that they had heard smaller explosions from Fritsinger’s property over the previous two weeks, according to the court file.When the first officer approached the home and asked Fritsinger about the previous explosions, he denied that any such explosions had occurred, according to the court file. The first responding officers noticed a workbench in his garage, where a “large white tube approximately eight inches in diameter, capped on both ends” was spinning on an unidentified machine. Officers also saw an “unknown substance” in a large glass beaker.Fritsinger initially told officers that the tube was a “tumbler” for polish, and that the chemicals were for refrigeration materials for his work. The court file lists Fritsinger’s profession as “self-employed.”After Fritsinger gave the officers verbal permission to search his home, police found chemicals on his kitchen island such as thermite and ammonium nitrate, the court file reads. The officers recognized these as potential bomb-making material. They also found a substance labeled “thermite ignition mix,” as well as aluminum powder, wires, electronic boards, metal pipes and a notepad with the names of chemicals listed on it.Fritsinger “then admitted to causing explosions in his backyard with thermite in a container mixed with ammonium nitrate,” according to the MHPD report contained in the court file.MHPD officers then acquired a search warrant and the Santa Clara County Bomb Squad returned to search the property March 13. Some neighboring homes on McLaughlin Court were evacuated on March 12 after the explosions were reported, and during the March 13 search.No injuries were reported due to the explosions outside his home, according to police.Fritsinger’s home is about one block east of Monterey Road just north of downtown. The Morgan Hill Pre-School Academy and Shadow Mountain Baptist School, among other commercial properties, are nearby. Britton Middle School is about two blocks away, on the west side of Monterey Road at West Central Avenue.

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A Morgan Hill man is accused of making explosive materials in a home that is neighbored by schools, a church and other residences.On March 13, police arrested Dennis Fritsinger, 63, of Morgan Hill, on suspicion of possessing “materials and compounds and mixtures to make explosive materials,” Morgan Hill Police Sgt. Troy Hoefling said. He is also accused of being a felon in possession of ammunition, namely handgun and rifle rounds. No weapons were recovered during the police search of his home.The crimes Fritsinger is suspected of are felonies. He has not yet been charged by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, which has up to 72 hours after his arrest to arraign him.Fritsinger’s identity and the crimes he is suspected of were revealed after MHPD and the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Bomb Squad spent the afternoon March 13 searching his home on McLaughlin Court.That search, which lasted several hours and closed McLaughlin Court to traffic, yielded the materials that Fritsinger was planning to combine to make explosives, police said. He also had “hundreds of pieces of equipment” that constituted a sort of home chemistry lab in Fritsinger’s house.McLaughlin Court—which forms an “L” shaped residential neighborhood off East Central Avenue, just north of downtown Morgan Hill—was covered with patrol cars, bomb squad trailers and fire trucks during the six-hour-plus search. Residents neighboring Fritsinger’s home were asked to stay away while authorities executed the search warrant.Hoefling did not know the exact names or types of materials and compounds that were found, and noted that they will be sent to the county crime lab for analysis.Hoefling further noted that Fritsinger is “definitely a hobbyist,” and the search did not reveal any obvious intent to cause harm outside the home.  “Nothing we found in there was specific to any threats, (nor was there) anything that would lead us to say he was trying to destroy anything,” Hoefling said. “But for him to do (this) in a neighborhood is concerning, at best, especially with its location (near) the church and a pre-school.”The home is about one block east of Monterey Road just north of downtown. The Morgan Hill Pre-School Academy and Shadow Mountain Baptist School, among other commercial properties, are nearby. Britton Middle School is about two blocks away, on the west side of Monterey Road at West Central Avenue.The March 13 search of Fritsinger’s home was prompted by two explosions reported by neighbors the previous day. About 2:45pm March 12, a nearby resident called police to report “a firework or explosion,” Hoefling said. Officers responded but did not find a source of the disturbance at that time.Then about 6pm March 12, another resident called to report a “louder explosion” than the previous one, Hoefling said. That caller offered more details, including the sighting of a puff of smoke from a specific residence following the explosion.Police returned to the neighborhood and contacted the homeowner where the explosion allegedly occurred. Authorities contacted the homeowner in his garage, where officers saw suspicious chemicals and what looked like a small laboratory similar to what might be found in a high school chemistry class, Hoefling said. Officers could not immediately determine the purpose of the home laboratory on their initial March 12 visit, but the visible evidence was suspicious enough to call in the county bomb squad.At that time, police detained Fritsinger—the only occupant of the home at the time—and “backed out” of the area until a search warrant was acquired and the bomb squad arrived, Hoefling said.The Monday evening discovery of possible bomb-making chemicals and other materials led authorities to evacuate the neighborhood. The evacuated residents returned home Monday night, but police asked them to leave again Tuesday morning until the bomb squad completed the search, Hoefling said.

Authorities are searching a home on McLaughlin Court, just north of downtown Morgan Hill, for explosive material and bomb-making supplies.As of 11:30am March 13, the street that spans less than a block and ends in a cul-de-sac was closed with crime scene tape while police served a search warrant. Morgan Hill Police called in the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Bomb Squad to conduct the search. Santa Clara County Fire District's hazardous materials team was also at the scene.The search was prompted by two explosions that occurred less than four hours apart in the area of the McLaughlin Court home March 12, according to Morgan Hill Police Sgt. Troy Hoefling.About 2:45pm March 12, a nearby resident called police to report “a firework or explosion,” Hoefling said. Officers responded but did not find a source of the disturbance at that time.Then about 6pm March 12, another resident called to report a “louder explosion” than the previous one, Hoefling said. That caller offered more details, including the sighting of a puff of smoke from a specific residence following the explosion.Police returned to the neighborhood and contacted the homeowner where the explosion allegedly occurred. Authorities contacted the homeowner in his garage, where officers saw suspicious chemicals and what looked like a small laboratory similar to what might be found in a high school chemistry class, Hoefling said. Officers could not immediately determine what the home laboratory was for, but suspected its purpose could have been to produce explosives or narcotics.The homeowner was arrested on suspicion of possession of “bomb-making material or explosive ingredients,” Hoefling said. Police are not releasing the suspect’s name until the search of the home is complete. He remains in custody.Officers determined nobody else was in the home and “backed out” of the area after they saw the suspicious chemicals Monday night, and waited until the county bomb squad was available before continuing a search of the property, Hoefling said.The Monday evening discovery of possible bomb-making chemicals and other materials led authorities to evacuate the neighborhood. The evacuated residents returned home Monday night, but police asked them to leave again Tuesday morning until the bomb squad completed the search, Hoefling said.The search of the McLaughlin Court home is expected to be complete by about 6pm March 13, police said.McLaughlin Court is located about one block east of Monterey Road, and just north of East Central Avenue. The Morgan Hill Pre-School Academy and Shadow Mountain Baptist School, among other commercial properties, are nearby. Britton Middle School about two blocks away, on the west side of Monterey Road at West Central Avenue.Check back later for updates to this developing story.

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