Community Corner

State Bomb Squad Called in for Dynamite Found in Meriden Home

A Meriden woman called police after finding a half-century old stick of dynamite while cleaning her newly purchased house.

Elizabeth Arbelo never expected that cleaning her new house would result in a visit from the bomb squad. 

But that's exactly who showed up to her home at 185 Carter Ave. Ext. in Meriden Wednesday afternoon, after Arbelo called police to inform them that she had found what looked like a stick of dynamite up high in a closet last week. She had been cleaning the windows of an upstairs bedroom of the house she purchased on July 1, when she saw it.

"I didn't think it was dangerous," Arbelo said, so she put the item in a bag and planned to dispose of it later. But then one of her adult children urged her to phone the police. 

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After Arbelo phoned police Wednesday, Meriden Firefighters and Police evacuated the home and the two right next to it, took a look at the device, and called the State Bomb Squad.  

It was indeed a stick of dynamite, Meriden Police said after the bomb squad investigated and cleared the home by around 3 p.m., but it was no longer active. 

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"It dates back to probably the 1950's or 60's. it was at one point an active piece of 'dynamite' – a glycerine explosive device," said Meriden Police Sgt. Darrin McKay. "But it's inert now, it was never in danger of exploding today, it's been inactive for an indefinite period of time. 

Arbelo and her daughter said the device was red and long and recognized it because it looked like the kind of dynamite one might see in a children's cartoon. McKay said it looked like a Roman candle with a fuse coming out of the top of it. 

McKay said that over the near half-century that the well-hidden item was likely sitting in the closet, sometimes in 100-degree heat, the glycerine component of it likely soaked into the explosive's sawdust base and rendered it useless, "Because over a period of time it just dries out and becomes inert." He said police would be contacting former owners of the home, a cape that was built in 1938.

Arbelo, her two children and two grandchildren reentered their house around 3 p.m.

According to McKay, if people come across what they think could be dynamite or an explosive device, they should phone police immediately. 


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