Tempe police, SRP unsure of mysterious explosions in south Tempe neighborhood

TEMPE, Ariz. (FOX 10) - For the last few weeks, mysterious explosions have been lighting up the skies in the middle of the night in south Tempe.

FOX 10 reached out to Tempe Police and SRP about the explosions, and neither know what's going on.

Multiple residents have heard the explosions, and some have captured them on their doorbell cameras.

Kathie Obra lives nearby and says it sounded like a war zone.

"It doesn't sound like it's just some kids blowing up fireworks. It sounds like it's meant to scare people. It's in the middle of the night," Obra said.

The explosions happened between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. on July 5th, 8th and 24th near Hardy and Grove Streets.

However, no one seems to know what is happening and what the explosions are.

"I wasn't sure what it was. I thought it could be fireworks or something, but it's really late. Who would do that?" Bhavana Girdia said.

"It does concern you. If it's not fireworks, and it is gunfire, and there are flashes, then where is it coming from?" Cecilia Allsopp said.

The theories range from thunder and lightning, a transformer explosion, a homemade bomb or gunfire.

However, Thomas Frasier from C2 Tactical says you can rule out a gun.

"That's a big boom. [It's] definitely not a gunshot though. Gunshots don't normally make car alarms go off," Frasier said.

Both SRP and Tempe police are checking into it.

Obra hopes whatever it was won't come back any time soon.

"It's extremely disconcerting. I mean, in today's day and age with all of the danger that you have, and we have kids upstairs. We have to be vigilant. It's really scary and everybody should keep their eyes and ears open," Obra said.

A similar experience happened in north Phoenix and Glendale that baffled police in fall 2018. They eventually arrested a man for setting off homemade explosives.