Dynamite Prompts Evacuation

PUYALLUP - Several buildings, including a day-care center, were evacuated yesterday after a backhoe operator found what appeared to be at least four cases of dynamite buried at a construction site.

Authorities planned to detonate the explosives this morning at the site, at 128th Avenue East and Meridian Street. Workers had been digging a trench and clearing an area for a new drugstore when they uncovered the dynamite.

Officials said the explosives were manufactured in 1951. There was no immediate explanation for how the dynamite got there.

Authorities plan to evacuate roughly 15 businesses and perhaps 40 apartment buildings and detonate the explosives on the spot. The dynamite is too old, and perhaps unstable, to move, said Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer.