Newburyport, MA — Earlier today, Newburyport Police responded to a local residence that was being cleaned out by relatives when they discovered what appeared to be a CS grenade from WWII era. CS is more commonly referred to as tear gas. Out of an abundance of caution, Newburyport Police contacted the Massachusetts State Police Bomb squad to analyze the device. It was decided that the safest course of action would be a controlled detonation of the device at a safe location.
The device was transported to the area of the Crow Lane landfill where it was remotely and safely detonated by the MSP bomb squad. The explosives used to detonate the device were small, but EXTREMELY loud. In all honesty, we underestimated the effect and the detonation was MUCH louder than we anticipated. Fortunately, here in Newburyport we aren’t faced with having to coordinate controlled detonations of explosive devices very often.
Communication is a priority for our department and we definitely needed to do better today. My apologies to anyone that was alarmed by todays events. We have better protocols in place for notifications should an event like this take place in the future. There was no danger to the public at any time related to these events today. Please do not hesitate call us when you need us. We are here 24/7/365.
-Marshal Matthew Simons