HUTCHINSON – Police arrested A Kansas man after he allegedly caused an explosion in a downtown Hutchinson apartment building around 4p.m. Tuesday afternoon.

Case Coble, 22, did not make a court appearance Wednesday because of a power outage at the Reno County Correctional Facility.

He is jailed for aggravated arson and possession of explosives.

The chemical explosion set off the fire alarms in the Plaza Towers building just east of Main at 2nd Street, according to Hutchinson Police Detective Jamie Schoenhoff.

Hutchinson Fire units arrived and thought Coble might have been making methamphetamine, so they called police.

Schoenhoff was called in based on his experience with the drug unit and he determined it wasn’t a meth lab, but possibly something more sinister.

Coble was apparently mixing chemicals to cause explosions.

Local officials brought in other investigators including the Kansas Fire Marshal, the South Central Kansas Homeland Security Council, Sedgwick County Fire, Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms officials and the FBI.

Schoenhoff says they believe he was communicating with other individuals in other states, giving them advice on how to make chemical explosions.

Schoenhoff says they are looking at one person in particular in Minnesota.
Apparently, this is not the first time an explosion has occurred in that building. Coble told officials it had happened in the past as well.

Coble is a student at Hutchinson Community College apparently studying chemistry, but Schoenhoff says he has attended colleges in other places.

Bond in the case set at $12,500. He is expected to be in court on Thursday.