Instructions for napalm device found on Internet

"This was one of the more serious devices," said Ashland Capt. Mike DeCapua. "There was close to a quart of this burning gel (in a bottle) and if it was detonated in a crowded area, considerable injuries would have occurred.

"It can't be washed off. It adheres to the skin surface and burns."

Police arrested a 14-year-old and his 15-year-old brother on charges of manufacture and possession of a bomb. Additionally, police charged the 15-year-old with making and possessing a pipe bomb.

Police took both to the Jackson County Juvenile Detention Facility.

The 14-year-old faces up to 10 years of incarceration. The 15-year-old is looking at up to 20 years behind bars, or being in a juvenile correctional facility until age 25, whichever comes first.

The charges do not fall under Measure 11, and the boys will not be referred to adult court.

The 15-year-old had been referred to the juvenile detention facility eight times previously, said detention director Alan Young. The 14-year-old had been referred four times.

Most of the previous charges were for minor thefts and runaway violations, although the 14-year-old was charged with harassment in November 1998, and both had been involved in a felony first-degree criminal mischief case in October 1997. The mischief case was resolved through a civil compromise, Young said.

The 14-year-old had been in an "alternative placement" at Ashland Middle School, said Ashland School Superintendent John Daggett. Relatives and police said the boy had threatened another student in a note.

Police arrested him at his tutor's home Tuesday. The 15-year-old was arrested as he attended classes at Ashland High School.

Daggett said he doesn't yet know what this will mean in terms of the boys' school arrangements.

The crime was discovered when the boys' guardians, an aunt and uncle, came home from a camping trip and found the napalm bomb hidden in a tree on the property. The boys' mother is dead. The boys have been living with their guardians for about a year.

Their aunt said the boys suffered abuse in their previous home.

"They were locked in sheds and things like that," she said. "A lot of what they do now is experimental-type stuff. We still felt we had to tell the police because these boys needed a little shakeup."

Contrary to police accounts of interviews, the boy's aunt said the boys had no intention of setting the bomb off.

"They decided to hide it because they didn't know what else to do with it," she said. "They are both very remorseful."

They had learned to make the bombs from the Internet, police said.

"In the detectives' interviews with the boys, they didn't show any concern they had done anything wrong," DeCapua said. "They freely admitted their purpose. One had acted as the lookout while the other did the manufacturing and hiding."

DeCapua also said police consulted with Oregon State Police bomb technicians to determine that the destructive device was actually napalm, a gel used in the Vietnam War and designed to adhere to surfaces as it burns.