WA- Body found in rubble of South Hill burned house is identified

4-16-2008 Washington:

Joe and Lynne Householder had just settled into bed Monday night when they heard their four dogs barking.
Then Joe Householder noticed the motion detector light on in their driveway. When he looked out through the blinds, he spotted several sheriff’s deputies with their guns drawn, crouching on the front lawn of their South Hill area house.

“That was pretty scary,” Lynne Householder recalled Tuesday. “About 30 seconds later, we heard a big explosion.”

The second story of their neighbor’s house in the quiet cul-de-sac had been blown apart by an explosion, and the house was ablaze. Zane Dittman, 25, who rented a room in the house, was killed in the blast.

The explosion happened minutes after a brief confrontation between the deputies and Dittman. Deputies said the man had several types of explosive devices, including pipe bombs and shrapnel-type material.


Investigators didn’t know whether Dittman intentionally or accidentally set off the explosion, which blew out the windows, obliterated the roof and engulfed the house in flames. It also destroyed two cars parked next to the house.

“The explosion was pretty powerful,” sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said. “We’re lucky he wasn’t able to take anyone else out.”

The incident kept deputies, the department’s bomb squad and firefighters busy throughout the night and into Tuesday.

“It was one heck of a fire,” said Bob Kleinhanz, who lives three houses away and stayed up all night to watch the activity.

Sheriff’s investigators were looking into why the man had the explosives and what triggered the string of events late Monday in the 7000 block of 162nd Street Court East.

Sean Remlick, the owner of the home, had rented a room to Dittman about nine months ago after he responded to an advertisement on the online site Craigslist, according to Troyer and a friend of Remlick’s. Remlick could not be reached Tuesday.

The friend, who would give only his first name, Josh, said he’d met Dittman. He said the man talked about his church and said he worked as a plumber.

Troyer said Dittman was a Level 1 sex offender – those considered least likely to re-offend. Remlick didn’t know that, his friend said.

“He would never have rented to him if he knew his past,” Josh said. “He never had any problems with him.”

The homeowner and his fiancee told deputies that Dittman’s behavior noticeably changed in the past week and he began acting paranoid, Troyer said.

Monday’s events began just before 11 p.m. when Remlick and his fiancee called 911 to report that the renter had been acting strangely and making explosive devices, Troyer said.

Deputies came to the house and found Dittman in the kitchen. He grabbed a duffel bag, bottles and other items and ran upstairs, Troyer said. He switched on heavy metal music and turned up the volume.

The deputies recognized some of the items in the bag as components of explosive devices. They evacuated the couple and called for backup before surrounding the house and securing the scene.

Within 10 minutes, a large blast rocked the house, blowing off the second story, breaking windows and window frames, and igniting a fire.

“Our deputies were standing 75 to 100 yards away,” Troyer said. “It drenched our deputies in beauty bark and dirt.”

Firefighters responded but didn’t go inside the house because they could hear popping sounds and explosions. The firefighters kept the fire contained to the house, Troyer said.

The Sheriff’s Department bomb squad was called and, because of the man’s behavior and the likelihood of other explosive devices, checked his two sports cars. The squad took suspicious packages found inside the cars, Troyer said.

Brandon Tims, 20, watched the fire from his parents’ rooftop while huddled under a blanket with his younger brother. He also heard what appeared to be gunshots and saw green flashes in the flames.

“It was pretty loud,” Tims said. “It was an aggressive fire.”

Shortly after the explosion, deputies pounded on the Householders’ door so hard Lynne Householder thought they were going to break it down. The couple and their 16-year-old son were hustled to a neighbor’s home across the street.

The family spent most of the night at the neighbor’s. Lynne Householder said they peered over a fence with binoculars to watch the bomb squad’s robots work.

“That was really cool,” she said. ..more.. by Stacey Mulick