One Arrested After Fire At Suspected Mansfield Meth Lab

MANSFIELD, MA — Police arrested a Mansfield man on drug charges after an early-morning fire Tuesday morning led to the discovery of a suspected meth at his Stearns Avenue home.

Robert S. Triggs, 48, was scheduled to be arraigned at Attleboro District Court Tuesday afternoon on charges of possession with intent to manufacture methamphetamine, two related drug possession charges, and of committing a drug violation near a school zone, Massachusetts State Police said.

A State Police bomb squad and hazmat team were called to the home in Mansfield after an overnight fire led to the discovery of volatile chemicals used to make illegal drugs.

"Our Bomb Squad responded after firefighters who responded to a fire at that address located chemicals at the residence," Dave Procopio, a State Police spokesman, said in an email to the Boston Globe. "HazMat officials from the state Fire Marshal’s office also responded. The investigation at the scene is ongoing."

Firefighters were called to the Colonial house on 48 Stearns Road around 1:48 a.m. Tuesday, where they found a fire in a second-floor bedroom. An undisclosed number of residents had already escaped from the home, uninjured. Firefighters were able to contain the fire in the bedroom where it started.

But after the fire was out, rescue workers found "what appeared to be chemicals used in the manufacturing of unlawful narcotics," Mansfield police said in a statement.