Published: 11/28/2006
Day 5: Strife over blast site continues While feds want in, state fire marshal says crime hasn't been ruled out
By Matthew K. RoyStaff Writer
DANVERS - A turf war between state and federal authorities intensified yesterday as state officials continued to bar federal investigators from the site of last Wednesday's chemical plant explosion.
State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan said yesterday a team of investigators from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board has been denied access to the explosion site on Water Street because they are not trained to carry out criminal investigations, and law enforcement officials have yet to rule out foul play.
"We are not prepared tonight to call this an accident," Coan said. He said state police investigators, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and Danvers police and fire officials haven't discovered evidence to suggest "criminal intent" behind the explosion, but more time was needed for the "criminal investigation to take its course."
A spokesman for the Chemical Safety Board called the state's position unprecedented in the board's experience. In other places throughout the country, the Chemical Safety Board's investigation happens at the same time as the criminal investigation, according to Daniel Horowitz, the board's director of congressional, public, and board affairs.
"It's puzzling that Massachusetts has taken this posture," Horowitz said. "There is no (other) jurisdiction in the country that has adopted this posture."
An independent government agency that has been operating since 1998, the Chemical Safety Board investigates industrial chemical accidents and makes recommendations to prevent their recurrence. It has investigated 40 accidents since its creation. The Federal Clean Air Act mandates the board be given access to sites such as the one in Danvers, Horowitz said.
A team of Chemical Safety Board investigators arrived in town from Washington, D.C., on Friday afternoon. They haven't left town, despite being denied access. The team will try again today to get on the explosion site, Horowitz said.
"The public interest has to come first," Horowitz said. "Federal law has to be enforced."
Ideally, Chemical Safety Board investigators need access to a site "right away" before evidence is damaged, Horowitz said.
"A lot of what we're looking for is very fragile," he said. "We're looking for blast markers, small bits of damage to structures and beams that in the hands of experts with a computer can pinpoint exactly what kind of explosion this was, perhaps even what kind of materials are involved."
