Hanford police arrested two boys Friday afternoon in connection with Thursday's pipe-bomb explosion at Hanford High School that resulted in a three-hour campus lockdown.

Those who know the suspects said they are brothers.

On Thursday, the school became a hotbed of activity during the lunch hour when what appeared to be a homemade explosive exploded in a fenced-in courtyard behind the campus auto shop.

The school was immediately placed on lockdown with students remaining in their classrooms while police investigated the incident. School officials say no one was injured.

Nearly 29 hours later, late Friday afternoon, police arrested a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old, both students at Hanford High, at a residence in the 100 block of High Street off of Douty Street -- a neighborhood right across the street from the school.

The two were charged with manufacturing explosives, the detonation of explosives on school grounds and transportation of explosives, which are all felonies, said Hanford Police Chief Carlos Mestas.

"We interviewed a lot of students yesterday," Mestas said. "We gathered enough information about the suspects through the interviews to make the arrests ... When you're dealing with so many people who knew who the suspects may be, it doesn't take long for us to find them."

As commuter traffic peaked on Douty Street after 5:30 p.m., police were blocking access to High Street, where members of the Visalia Police bomb squad assisted Hanford police in combing through the residence for evidence.

Mestas said the house might have contained materials used in making explosives, but declined to say whether the suspects lived there.

As the police investigation continued Friday, the bomb squad trailer attracted a handful of spectators, and some noise, in an otherwise quiet neighborhood.

Among them was Russ Banky, who lives just two doors down from the house where the suspects were arrested.

"It's scary. I see it on TV all the time, but it's scary to know people who live close to me were making bombs," Banky said. "What shocks me more is that they are kids."

Banky, who have lived there for 3 1/2 years, said the neighborhood is usually peaceful.

"It's normally quiet here," Banky said. "It's mostly older people living on this street. You don't have any problems."

The reporter can be reached at 583-2429.

(April 26, 2008)