I-395 shut down after fireworks found

BREWER – The westbound lanes of Interstate 395 between Brewer and Bangor were shut down for nearly two hours Monday while authorities disabled what first appeared to be dynamite found in the breakdown lane of the busy highway.

Officers from four departments, including the Bangor police bomb squad, converged on the scene just off the Wilson Street interchange after a passing motorist noticed the device at about 10:30 a.m. The bundle of four or five sticks resembling dynamite turned out to be Roman candle fireworks, according to Sgt. Troy Morton of the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department.

A few of the sticks already had exploded, Morton said. The Bangor bomb squad disabled the remaining sticks with its water cannon.

“After that, they weren’t a danger to anyone,” Morton said.

Until that realization, perplexed motorists destined for Bangor on Monday morning had to use Wilson Street to get downtown or to the bridges that cross the Penobscot.

Before officers were able to determine the relatively harmless nature of the device, authorities initially suspected the explosives could have come from a neighboring construction site, according to Morton. Officials at the site, however, quickly dispelled those suspicions, as they had not been using explosives there.

Morton said it was unclear Monday how the device made its way onto the road, but police were looking to track down the origin of the firework’s packaging found farther down the highway.

Anyone with information is asked to the call the sheriff’s department at 947-4585.