Operations & Training

MA Firefighters Find Meth Lab During House Fire

Nov. 24, 2021

A dwelling fire in Mansfield quickly changed directions as firefighters located a possible meth lab and summoned hazmat and bomb squad assets.

By Will Katcher

Source masslive.com

Mansfield, MA, responders remove contents from a possible meth lab discovered at a residential fire on Nov. 23, 2021

Firefighters’ trip to a Mansfield home early Tuesday morning may have began with the purpose of extinguishing a second-floor fire, but it ended with the discovery of a possible meth lab and one resident’s arrest.

Just before 2 a.m. Tuesday, Mansfield firefighters responded to 48 Stearns Ave. for a fire in an upstairs bedroom. They quickly put out the flames and found that no one had been injured, authorities said.

But an examination of the house by a fire investigator revealed evidence that the space was being used to manufacture illegal narcotics, Mansfield police said.

A hazardous materials, or HAZMAT, team, Mansfield police, the Massachusetts State Police bomb squad and the state Fire Marshal’s Clandestine Lab Team responded to the home. Their investigation turned up chemicals and other items used to manufacture methamphetamine, a powerful and illegal stimulant, state police said.

Police arrested Robert S. Triggs, 48, a resident of the home. He was arraigned Tuesday in Attleboro District Court on a range of drug charges, authorities said.