Date: Fri 07-Mar-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

police-dynamite

Full Text:

Dynamite Scare A False Alarm

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

Emergency service personnel had some anxious moments Monday afternoon after

learning that a live stick of dynamite might be positioned in a rock ledge

outcropping in the Rollingwood subdivision.

After an investigation, however, no dynamite was found.

United Fire Company of Botsford Chief Steve Belair said Botsford firefighters

responded to Lot 1 at Marlin Road around noon, after learning that the type of

wiring used in blasting was protruding from a blaster's hole in a rock ledge

outcropping. Blasting had been done in the area last year in preparing the lot

for home construction.

The house on that property is not yet occupied, Chief Belair said. Although

the lot appears to have frontage on Marlin Road, it actually has the address

of 155 Toddy Hill Road.

After firefighters and town police arrived on the scene, they summoned a bomb

expert from state police Troop A barracks in Southbury. The expert quickly

appeared in an unmarked Ford Bronco and soon determined that the wires

protruding from the drill hole apparently did not pose an explosion hazard.

But just to be sure, officials called in the firm that had done blasting work

at the site. Although the situation did not appear dangerous, firefighters had

to assume that it was hazardous, according to Chief Belair.

As the firefighters waited for the blaster, conditions grew colder and colder

as a minor snow storm approached the area.

After about 90 minutes, a technician from Shoreline Blasting Corporation of

Madison arrived.

The technician used streams of compressed air to force crushed rock out of the

drill hole to learn if a dynamite charge was at the bottom of it. No dynamite

was found.

Firefighters left the scene about 3 pm.