A man jailed in Clinton is charged with arson for apparently trying to blow up a power station. Clinton police captain Randy Meier says he was arrested Friday night.Police arrested 27-year-old Ivan Guertin April 23 about 8-30 P.M. for second-degree arson. The man’s wife tells police she found him mixing household substances in a pop bottle, and says he told her he wanted to “blow up the whole world.” He headed downtown and was spotted by a cop on the beat outside a fence surrounding the local electric company’s substation. Meier says a patrol officer saw Guertin throw a package onto property of Alliant Energy in Clinton, and says the package was a “homemade incendiary device.” Guertin’s in custody in the Clinton County jail. A special agent with the Iowa State Marshal’s Office says in court papers that the man admitted lighting a paper napkin in a bag with his device, but it went out, and he describes the concoction as basically harmless. Nonetheless, until the area was declared safe, Clinton police and fire workers closed off an area near the power station, drawing praise the utility’s managers for their fast work and the arrest of the suspect.
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