John Blanchard

Some might say that smoking meth with a blowtorch near a container of gunpowder is ill-advised. Some will try anyway.

John Blanchard, 65, is among them, San Mateo County sheriff's deputies say.

Deputies called to a fire Friday afternoon in a storage yard in the unincorporated community of Princeton near the Half Moon Bay Airport found Blanchard standing outside a camper that he had parked there illegally, sheriff's Lt. Ray Lunny said.

Investigators determined that the fire on the 200 block of Yale Avenue had been started by a defective propane blowtorch that Blanchard had been using to smoke methamphetamine, Lunny said.

Blanchard left the blowtorch on a dryer, causing a nearby container of gunpowder to explode, said Steve Wagstaffe, chief deputy district attorney.

Besides the blowtorch, deputies found a loaded rifle, ammunition, a container of black powder and an unopened safe containing more than 300 feet of detonation cord, Lunny said.

Blanchard, who has a previous drug conviction, pleaded not guilty Monday to drugs and weapons violations. He is being held on $30,000 bail.

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