WOOLWICH, Maine — The Maine State Police bomb squad searched the Woolwich town office Thursday morning after an unknown device was found outside the building. They later determined it to be discarded commercial-grade fireworks.
The bomb squad, state fire marshal’s office, Sagadahoc County sheriff’s deputies and the Woolwich Fire Department went to the office at about 10:45 a.m. to evacuate the building and close Nequasset Road, Sagadahoc County Sheriff Joel Merry said Thursday afternoon.
The device had been brought to the town office Wednesday, and a staff member placed it in a bag outside the building, which is adjacent to the Woolwich fire station, and notified fire department officials, Merry said.
When the fire department examined it Thursday morning, they called the fire marshal “because it appeared to be an explosive,” Merry said. The “distressed, commercial-grade pyrotechnics” were not packaged in consumer packaging, Merry said.
“There appears to have been a lapse of time between when it was brought to the town office and when someone from the fire department looked at it,” Merry said.
The town office, fire station and Nequasset Road reopened at around 1 p.m., Merry said.
Merry said the situation cost his department and others “valuable resources,” and he encouraged anyone disposing of old or unwanted fireworks to “either make it known in person or clearly mark what it is somehow so first responders are totally aware of the situation. It’s the unknown that we have to use precautions for.”