Huntington, Ind. (Indiana’s NewsCenter) - State and federal law enforcement agencies are investigating multiple explosions and fires in a school trash dumpster at a Huntington County school over the weekend.
The Labor Day holiday seemed more like the Fourth of July at Northwest Elementary School a few miles outside Huntington.
Neighbors called the Sheriff's Department Sunday, after hearing a series of loud bangs.
Fire crews who responded found flames coming from one of the trash dumpsters behind the school building.
The FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and state police were called in, because we’re told the incendiary devices used to spark the explosions and fires don’t appear to be amateur homemade bombs.
" We have no idea what caused the explosion or what it was. I will say I don't think it's meth. It wasn't a meth explosion, or anything like that. It was more volatile than that," said Huntington County Sheriff Terry Stoffel.
Investigators at the scene analyzed the contents of the dumpsters.
The containers will eventually be hauled away and stored for evidentiary purposes.
There was a two-hour fog delay at Northwest Elementary Tuesday morning, but school was not canceled.
" We don't want anybody to be afraid. I don't want to ensue any panic in the community. We're just doing everything that we can to make sure we get to the bottom of it, whether it was kids on the week-end, had nothing better to do than to make something and throw it in there, or if there is more to it than that," said Sheriff Stoffel.
Police say there was actually a second set of explosions and fire on Monday, suggesting the same culprits may have returned to cause even more commotion.
Anyone who may have seen something suspicious is urged to call the Huntington County Sheriff's Department at 260-356-8316, or phone Crimestoppers to try and help catch who's responsible.
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