HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A 22-year-old man was arrested by police after he allegedly caused an explosion in a downtown apartment Tuesday. He didn’t make a court appearance because of a power outage at the Reno County Correctional Facility. Chase Coble was expected to appear via video from the jail for a first appearance on potential charges of aggravated arson and possession of explosives.

According to Hutchinson Police Detective Jamie Schoenhoff, the chemical explosion set off the fire alarms in the Plaza Towers building just east of Main on 2nd. 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 from the Kansas Fire Marshal’s Office, the South Central Kansas Homeland Security Council, which works through the Sedgwick County Fire Department, 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.

He says they seized 10 servers and are currently looking through those and also seized numerous chemicals that were tested and then destroyed.

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.

He may have some connection to the city of Salina with the detective believing that was the last place he lived.

The detective noted that the various chemicals by themselves are not illegal, saying anyone can purchase them. It’s when they are combined to make explosives that it becomes illegal.

Schoenhoff says they don’t have a damage total, but says it was substantial to apartment 12-E, which is where Coble lived. There may also be damage to an apartment below him with water dripping because of the explosion.

Bond in the case was set at $12,500 and, because he didn’t appear before a judge Wednesday morning, that should happen Thursday morning, unless he manages to post bond. If that happens, it could be some time next week before he appears.