LOUISVILLE, Ky. — For the last 48 years, Peggy Nalley has considered herself the neighborhood watchdog. She can see the entire block from her porch.
“It’s been very quiet, and it usually stays this way. Until every agency in the book showed up here last Wednesday,” Nalley said.
The quiet neighborhood was turned upside down last week when Louisville Metro Police, the FBI’s bomb team and other agencies executed a search warrant for two houses on the corner of Applegate Lane and Maple Hill.
Marc Hibel, 53, was indicted Aug. 3 for burglary and wanton endangerment in connection to events at 6211 and 6213 Applegate Lane, where Hibel allegedly possessed explosives and other chemicals.
Several tips to police last week indicated that Hibel may be storing homemade explosives. Officials say they found primary and secondary explosives and over twenty different chemicals on the premises.
A report of the search said there were “gallons and tens of gallons of these chemicals and other chemicals at the premises.”
It shocked neighbors in the area.
“You never think of somebody in your neighborhood that’s making bombs,” Nalley said. “I mean, that’s for the TV. That’s for the TV movies.”
Hibel's arraignment is set for Monday, Aug. 7 at 2 p.m. He's being held on a $50,000 cash bond.
Investigators say there’s so much hazardous material that the safest course of action is a controlled burning of the two homes.
“All of the advice that we have received is that doing this controlled and monitored and planned burned will incinerate these chemicals at a very high temperature. And that is the safest path forward,” said Mayor Craig Greenberg, D-Louisville, in a press conference Tuesday.
Mayor Craig Greenberg and leaders from responding agencies will hold a community meeting to answer questions on the issue on Monday, Aug. 7 at 6:30 p.m. at Highview Baptist Church.
Currently, Hibel’s home is under 24-hour surveillance from police—and Nalley.
She’s thankful Louisville has kept neighbors in the loop on updates for the controlled burning.
“I don’t think they are going to put any of us in danger by burning it. It needs to be burnt down,” said Nalley.
Nalley plans to stay on guard to attend the community meeting to receive updates for the burning.
The University of Louisville’s Department of Environmental Health and Safety is working with law enforcement to find the best ways to destroy the hazardous materials.
The city has not set a date for the controlled burn. Officials say they need time to plan and proper weather for the burn to happen safely.