New York Daily News
(TNS)
A Connecticut man was arrested Thursday after his house had to be demolished in a “controlled burn” because it was full of unstable fireworks that could not be removed safely, police in Shelton said.
Stephen Lupkas, 54, turned himself in on a warrant for charges of illegal possession of fireworks and reckless endangerment, according to WFSB.
His arrest came about a month after his garage caught fire. As firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze, they discovered a huge stash of commercial fireworks, which exploded around them as they worked.
Three residents and a dog were displaced, city officials said at the time, though there were no injuries.
The state bomb squad at first planned to remove the fireworks and destroy them somewhere else, but realized they had no choice but “to do this controlled burn to mitigate the hazard,” Shelton Fire Chief Francis Jones told the Connecticut Post.
Five days and one court order later, fire officials evacuated the surrounding homes and burned the place down.
Lupkas, the owner, was apologetic, Jones told the Connecticut Post.
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