A fire in Silver Lake leveled a house and destroyed several cars and police believe it was an illicit drug operation that went awry.
LAPD Capt. Jeff Bert said witnesses saw three men running out of the house saying, "It's gonna blow! It's gonna blow!" before an explosion happened.
Capt. Daniel Curry of the Los Angeles Fire Department, said 911 calls came into dispatch reporting small explosions as if ammunition were cooking off in the house.
Investigators say hundreds of scattered butane canisters and other evidence proves that someone was extracting THC from the marijuana as part of a so-called "honey oil" operation, police said.
There was an empty swimming pool at the house, filled with marijuana plants, police said.
Alex Perez says he was playing basketball at King Middle School and he saw the hill burning and heard cans popping.
"Popping, pop, pop, pop, pop — like 10 minutes straight," he said. "That's what caught our attention."
Police don't know how long this "illegal grow" was operating. They're looking for the men who responsible.
