Union-News (Springfield, MA)
Author: FRED CONTRADA
GOSHEN, MA – Clad in armored suits that could not have adequately protected them, members of the State Police Bomb Squad yesterday burned a cache of dynamite big enough to have shattered windows a quarter mile away.
More than 30 public safety officials, including members of the Goshen police and fire departments, state police, ambulance crews and the U.S. Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, converged on the 19th century farmhouse at 74 South Chesterfield Road yesterday morning.
Firefighters discovered three 50-pound boxes of dynamite in a refrigerator on the second floor while fighting a fire there Tuesday.
Officials said the property is owned by Richard Messeck, 74.
Wearing 100-pound protective suits, bomb squad member Michael Costello and partner Don Stewart entered the house at about 11 a.m., climbed the stairs to the second floor and began removing the explosives.
“When we opened the refrigerator, before we even touched it, it was like taking a half dozen nitroglycerin pills,” Costello said. “We had to vomit just to get it out of our system.”
State trooper Michael Mazza, who is assigned to the State Police Fire Marshal’s office, said he believes the dynamite is approximately 30 years old. Because it had been stored so long, much of the nitroglycerin, a main ingredient in dynamite, had leaked, allowing bomb squad members to burn it without detonating it. But there was the danger of explosion throughout the two-hour operation.
“When you have that much old, leaky dynamite with nitroglycerin oozing out, it’s bad,” said Costello.
Repacked in crates
Working fire-brigade style, Costello repacked boxes of dynamite in stable crates and carried them one-by-one down the stairs to Stewart, who loaded them onto a sled. Costello admitted that their protective suits would not have been much help if the dynamite had detonated.
“I’d have a better chance with a grenade,” he said. “A hundred-fifty pounds of dynamite – we would’ve been in Northampton if it had gone off.”
After dragging the sled to a six-foot, horseshoe-shaped berm of snow built by the Fire Department, Costello and Stewart unloaded the dynamite, lit a 20-foot fuse of diesel-soaked hay and moved everyone back 1,000 feet.
The dynamite burned for about an hour, giving off white smoke that smelled like the aftermath of a fireworks display.
State police barricaded both ends of the road during the operation and neighbors in a half dozen houses within 1,500 feet of the site were instructed to n windows slightly to prevent shattering in case of an explosion, according to Fire Department officials. None of those neighbors was home yesterday morning.
Goshen Fire Chief Francis Dresser, among the army of public safety officials that occupied the rural road, described Messeck as “a cantankerous old-timer” who has been at odds with various town officials for decades. Dresser said he suspected Messeck had dynamite but was never able to prove it.
According to Dresser, the fire that led to the discovery of the dynamite originated shortly before noon Tuesday in a woodstove that had been condemned.
About 20 firefighters from Goshen, Chesterfield and Williamsburg arrived with five fire trucks and two ambulances and put out the fire in about 25 minutes.
Firefighters alerted Firefighters had been alerted to the possible presence of explosives. “There were standing orders that if the fire extended to that part of the building, they were to evacuate,” Dresser said.
According to Dresser, Messeck became enraged when told by firefighters that his house would be condemned and refused to leave the building.
Messeck was taken by ambulance to The Cooley Dickinson Hospital where officials said he was treated and released. Also treated was Williamsburg firefighter Mark Ober who injured a leg when he fell through a floor.
Messeck could not be reached yesterday. Northwestern Assistant District Attorney David Angier said he was told that family members took Messeck to a hospital for observation.
Angier said he will confer with Mazza before deciding whether to charge Messeck with possession of explosives. Farmers once used dynamite for various chores, according to Dresser, but the practice ended more than 40 years ago.
