A Milton apartment building was evacuated for more than two hours Sunday after police found three metal pipes with capped ends and marked “avalanche control” in one of the apartments.

Authorities feared the pipes might contain explosives and blew them up behind the building as a precaution.

A young couple living in a third-floor apartment told police they found the pipes a few weeks ago while walking in the woods near Snoqualmie Pass.

The 21-year-old man and 20-year-old woman said they didn’t know what they were going to do with the pipes, Milton Police Chief Bill Rhoades said Monday. Two of the pipes were found under a bed and one was leaning against a wall in the apartment, Rhoades said.

The Port of Seattle bomb squad and an FBI representative were called to the apartment about 12:45 p.m.

Rhoades said authorities decided to explode the pipes in a clearing behind the building rather than transport them. The pipes were placed in a hole with an explosive charge, covered with dirt and detonated.

Rhoades said it turned out two of the 21/2- to 3-foot long pipes were solid and the third one was hollow. He said the bomb squad didn’t think the empty pipe had any explosives in it.

Authorities aren’t sure what the pipes are for and have contacted-avalanche control officials at the pass to get more information, Rhoades said.

The couple were arrested for investigation of reckless endangerment, a gross misdemeanor. The man also was arrested on an outstanding felony warrant out of Oregon, Rhoades said.

Mike Archbold, The News Tribune