Two Burned After Meth Lab Explosion Rocks Indiana Motel

ANDERSON, Ind. -- Two people were burned in a morning methamphetamine laboratory explosion that rocked an Anderson motel.

Guests at the Days Inn Motel at 5706 S. Scatterfield Road were awaken at 7:22 a.m. by a blast from room 239. Inside police say a man and a woman were cooking meth.

"While the officer was enroute to the call, another call came in about a partially nude man running around in the parking lot of a grocery store with severe burns," said Detective Joel Sandefur of the Anderson Police Department. "That person ended up being the suspect from the motel room and we asked him how he got his burns and he said he was making meth."

Tracy Price II, 31, of Anderson, is hospitalized at Wishard Memorial Hospital. Mellissa Ellingwood, 35, of Anderson, was also burned and released from custody. Price is a probation violator and both will face criminal charges.

"She described the substance that she had as a red liquid that was on fire inside of a bowl and it just scared her," said Sandefur.

The room was heavily charred by the explosion. The walls were blackened, a television set melted, the fabric burned off the box spring and mattress. The door to room 239 was also burned as motel management set up fans in the second floor hallway to clear out the odor left behind by the fire. A plaque on the door to the room indicates it is a No Smoking Room.

Anderson firefighters and a narcotics detective cleaned up the residue of the fire though the flames destroyed most of the toxic chemicals.

No other guests of the motel complained of health problems related to the blast.

Detective Sandefur said the frequency of meth labs is literally exploding in Anderson.

"Since January this is about our thirteenth meth operation we've shut down and that is an increase in what we've seen."

In 2011, 49 meth labs were seized throughout Madison County. Indiana State Police report that 1437 meth labs were busted throughout Indiana in 2011...up from 1395 seizures statewide in 2010.

"What we've had in the past is that a lot of these operations have been confined to rural areas," said Sandefur noting the increase of methamphetamine presence within the city limits.

Investigators said the so-called "one pot" method of making meth which includes mixing all the ingredients in a two-liter bottle has made manufacturing of the drug much easier to conceal.

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McClatchy-Tribune News Service