By Trent Spiner
The Concord Monitor
FRANKLIN, N.H. — A methamphetamine lab on the outskirts of downtown Franklin caught fire yesterday after being raided by federal agents, sending eight students in a nearby high school and one police officer to the hospital.
The blaze, accelerated by chemicals from the lab, shut down a major thoroughfare into the city, bringing nearly two dozen fire departments and more than 100 emergency responders to the scene.
“This is not TV. This is not the movies,” said Franklin police Chief David Goldstein. “This is the real deal. This is what methamphetamine does.”
It was the first methamphetamine lab fire reported in the state, according to Leo Ducey, agent in charge of New Hampshire for the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Two people who lived in the apartment were arrested on drug and child endangerment charges. A third was detained yesterday but later released. Three children who also lived there were in school at the time.
The Tilton police learned of the lab Sunday. On Monday night, local, state and federal law enforcement agents met at the Franklin Police Department to plan yesterday’s raid for about 10 a.m. It included 20 officers in full tactical gear, with federal agents in the lead wearing facemasks and respirators to protect against hazardous fumes from the lab.
Franklin police officers were also in the building and took custody of Jeremy J. Clough, 31, and Rebecca Field, 33, both of 164 Central St.
As officers entered, Clough was wearing rubber gloves and carrying a laundry basket full of chemicals, said Tilton police Chief Bob Cormier.
“He was pretty much going to make more meth downstairs,” he said.
But about 30 seconds after the police got inside, fire began to engulf the building.
Officers yelled warnings and immediately evacuated, Goldstein said.
A resident in a next-door apartment, Scott Regan, said officers carried him out of the building in a hurry.
“I didn’t know what was going on,” he said. “I woke up to alarms going off everywhere and DEA agents in my face with machine guns.”
Regan spent yesterday outside in a pair of winter snow boots and an unzipped hooded sweatshirt borrowed from a friend.
From a nearby apartment overlooking the scene, Matt Garland, 20, watched the raid unfold as police cruisers arrived and smoke began pouring from the building’s roof.
“There was no smoke, and then all of a sudden there was a big, huge mushroom cloud,” he said.
The police are investigating whether the fire started as a result of commotion in the apartment or if it was part of a deliberate attempt by Clough and Field to destroy evidence, according to Cormier.
“They’ve been extremely honest,” he said. “They have admitted to cooking (methamphetamine), but they haven’t admitted to setting the fire.”
For about five hours, the intersection of Central and West Bow streets was closed, shutting off access to the center of Franklin from the west. As the fire went to three alarms, emergency trucks streamed down Central Street, their sirens echoing off the city’s mill buildings.
Firefighters largely battled the blaze from outside over fears of what was within the building, according to Franklin fire Chief Royal Smith. Ladder trucks sprayed the large, white farmhouse from the road. Firefighters used chain saws to cut holes in the roof, chasing stubborn flames that took hours to put out.
Meanwhile, onlookers spent the day watching the action — some who were kept out of nearby homes for safety and others who had the day off.
After the fire, Smith’s fears turned out to be true when investigators discovered a second methamphetamine lab in an unoccupied apartment in the building, according to the police.
The police said most of the evidence from the first lab, contained within Clough and Field’s apartment, was destroyed. The second lab was mostly intact, the police said.
Both were small, about the size of a box, and easy to transport, according to the police.
Clough and Field are each facing three charges of endangering the welfare of a child and two charges of manufacturing methamphetamine, Goldstein said.
After the fire, both were brought back to the scene in police cruisers to be decontaminated in a hazardous materials tent set up in the middle of Center Street. Clough and Field were stripped of their clothes, scrubbed inside the tent and came out the other side in handcuffs and yellow, rubber suits.
School response
Little information was released yesterday about the eight students who were treated and released from the hospital for “respiratory issues.”
About 30 minutes before the raid, the police briefed a number of officials from the fire department, city manager’s office and school district. The police ordered the nearby high school into lockdown, forcing students to remain in their classrooms with a police officer stationed outside.
Goldstein said he did not consider closing the school for the day for several reasons.
“One is not to interrupt the school day. The other is not to start tongues a-waggin’,” he said. “We were very confident in our ability to execute the warrants safely.”
Superintendent Jo Ellen Divoll said school would have been held if officials had known earlier about the raid.
“It is better for a community if everybody goes according to their normal routine,” she said.
Paula McDonough, a parent from Hill, said she was pleased with the amount of communication from the district but wondered why school was held.
“My only concern is . . . if they knew it was going to be a raid, why would you send the kids to school?” she said. “I think it would be a lot easier for everyone if the kids were kept home.”
Franklin school board Chairwoman Kathleen Russo said last night she had not been directly informed of the ill students, but she heard the lockdown was successful.
“If eight went to the hospital, I certainly don’t want that for them, but I’m not sure evacuating (450 students) would have been better,” she said. “Things went extraordinarily well, considering all that took place.”
Franklin police Officer Adam Donnelly was also hospitalized briefly for smoke inhalation when he caught a breath of fumes during the raid. He was released and returned to the scene.
The suspects
Clough, one of the people arrested yesterday, was a familiar face to many of the onlookers yesterday because he worked at the Cumberland Farms in Franklin.
“He was a pretty good guy,” Garland said.
He was also known to the police, who arrested him in April 2007 for criminal threatening.
According to paperwork filed at Franklin District Court, he threatened to “come in and shoot people” at Webster Valve, a local business. He waived his right to an attorney and pleaded guilty in exchange for a suspended six-month sentence in county jail.
A month later, Field was arrested in a separate incident. A state police officer charged her with possession after discovering a pipe with marijuana residue in her Dodge Caravan. She was found guilty and ordered to pay a $300 fine.
Both were held overnight at the county jail yesterday and are expected to be arraigned this morning in Franklin District Court.
The nature of their methamphetamine lab was highly volatile, according to Tony Pettigrew, DEA spokesman. Illicit labs use a number of commonly available chemicals, including starting fluid, paint thinner, acetone, battery acid and brake cleaner, to create a potent drug that users can inhale or inject. When those chemicals combine, they can burn very fast and cause a lot of damage.
To deal with the fire, a slew of departments were called to the scene, including Tilton, Belmont, Hill, Sanbornton, East Andover, Andover Rescue, Boscawen, Concord, Laconia, Gilford, New Hampton, Penacook Rescue, Plymouth, Andover, Gilmanton, Bristol and the Ashland Central New Hampshire Hazmat Team.
Staff reporter Ben Leubsdorf contributed to this article.
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