ESCONDIDO, California (Reuters) - Demolition teams and fire crews prepared on Thursday to set fire to an explosives-packed house in suburban San Diego that authorities say was turned into a bomb-making factory.

A controlled incineration of the single-story, wood-framed “bomb house,” whose tenant, an unemployed computer software engineer jailed on bank robbery and explosives charges, was set to begin at about 10:30 a.m. local time.

As the hour approached, crews sawed holes in the roof designed to let the blaze burn more quickly and efficiently through the top of the building, and firefighters sprayed fire-retardant gel on homes closest to the burn zone.

By 7 a.m. local time, an evacuation of at least 60 homes nearest the “bomb house” had been completed, and the California Highway Patrol began shutting down a portion of an interstate highway, I-15, that runs within 200 feet of the condemned dwelling.

The home is located in a middle-class neighborhood in the town of Escondido, about 25 miles north of San Diego.

Personnel from some 50 agencies were taking part in the operation, including hazardous materials teams, firefighters, bomb squad technicians and members of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.

Authorities have not disclosed exactly how they plan to set the house ablaze, other than to say the burning will be touched off by remote-control.

A final legal hurdle to the burning was cleared on Wednesday when a federal judge denied a request by lawyers for “bomb house” suspect George Jakubec, 54, to delay the incineration. His attorneys had argued that the demolition would destroy documents and other evidence needed to defend their client.

But the judge sided with FBI bomb experts who said the house was too dangerous to clear out and process as a crime scene, leaving authorities no alternative but to burn it down.

Jakubec, 54, a native of Serbia who has been in the United States more than 20 years, was arrested last month after police found his house packed from floor to ceiling with high explosives, bomb-making materials, handmade grenades and guns mixed in with piles of paper and other debris.

San Diego County prosecutor Terri Perez has called it “the largest quantity of these types of homemade explosives (ever found) at one place in the United States.”

Jakubec was charged last week in an eight-count federal indictment with three bank robberies and one attempted bank holdup. He also is accused of one count of possessing explosive devices, one count of illegal manufacture of explosives and two counts of brandishing a firearm during a robbery.

Now in federal detention without bond, Jakubec pleaded not guilty on Monday to each of the eight charges, which carry a maximum possible penalty of 20 years in prison.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently issued an emergency declaration freeing the state of liability for destroying the house, owned by a San Francisco Bay-area woman, according to county property records.

The house came under scrutiny on November 18 when a gardener working on the premises was injured by an explosion there.