STOCKTON — Authorities say the hundreds of military-style weapons found inside a home in north Stockton on Thursday morning are actually replicas.

The Stockton Police Department called in the countywide bomb squad and experts from Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield after officers responded to reports of a natural causes death at a residence in the 2900 block of Rockford Avenue and discovered what appeared to be numerous types of military explosives inside the home.

Twenty houses had to be evacuated due to safety concerns and the surrounding area saw road closures overnight as military experts spent nearly two days examining the items.

On Friday, Lt. Col. Glenn Cameron, squadron commander for the 60th Civil Engineering Squad out of Travis Air Force Base, announced that the majority of the items were replicas and posed no real risk to the public. Some of the items were old military devices that are now inert, he said, and only about two dozen devices were classified as actually live.

“There were some very small ordnance, things like fuses, some flares, some very relatively inherently safe items. Still a problem on some levels, but nothing that would cause a large explosion (or) something that could potentially burn a house down,” Cameron said, adding that the man who lived in the home was likely a collector of military items and memorabilia.

The San Joaquin County Coroner’s Office identified the man who was found dead in the residence as William White, 71, of Stockton. Police say he had no military background.

About 500 unique items were found at the residence, Cameron said, many of which were small. News media helicopter footage from over the house earlier in the day Friday showed some larger items that resembled more heavy duty artillery.

Each item had to be treated as live and individually inspected, Cameron said.

“That’s always the effort for us, to ensure public safety until we can validate that they’re absolutely, positively safe,” Cameron said. “We treat them as if they could be the worst case scenario to ensure that no one is needlessly injured.”

Residents were allowed to return to their homes Friday afternoon. The Red Cross had opened an evacuation center Thursday for affected residents at the Arnold Rue Community Center on Lorraine Avenue.

Dale Boyd lives in one of the homes that was in the evacuation zone on Stueben Way. He told The Record Thursday that he didn’t know White personally, but described him as a nice guy who always smiled and waved.

“Never caused a problem,” Boyd said, which made him a good neighbor in his book.

Contact reporter Cassie Dickman at (209) 546-8299 or cdickman@recordnet.com. Follow her on Twitter @byCassieDickman.