LINCOLN, Maine — A local man died instantly in a basement explosion while he was making bombs he used for tree clearing, state police said Thursday.
Robert Stuart, 67, died while mixing chemicals in his Stanhope Mill Road home shortly after 7 p.m. Wednesday, authorities said. He used the explosives “to blow up tree stumps,” according to Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.
“There does not seem to be anything sinister in this,” McCausland said Thursday.
A state police bomb disposal team safely detonated five improvised explosive devices in the man’s backyard that they had found in the basement, McCausland said.
Stuart’s wife, Sarah, told investigators he had been experimenting with explosives for several months. She was home when the explosion occurred and called first responders, McCausland said.
A woman who answered the door at Stuart’s home on Thursday declined to comment.
Lincoln firefighters and state and Lincoln police blocked Stanhope at Phinney Farm and Calm Cove roads for about seven hours as state fire marshals and the bomb team investigated the incident.
Federal authorities are investigating where Stuart bought the materials for the bombs.
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