BLOOMFIELD, Conn. — Bloomfield Police are investigating a building arson and now a drug manufacturing facility.
This comes just days after a Bloomfield commercial building caught on fire. Now, police say the building was a drug lab.
“This is my second week here. And I just was flabbergasted. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and hearing,” said Sandra Rich.
Charred remains left behind at a commercial building on West Newburry Road which Bloomfield police now say was a drug lab.
That discovery is leaving neighboring businesses in disbelief.
“For this quiet road. Who would have expected I mean; we were in total shock,” said Rich.
Fire investigators determined the cause of the fire to be arson. During the time of the fire, it was unoccupied, but people who work across the street say they thought it was a legitimate business
“There was a woman that we met a month before. And she said that she was opening up an employment agency. And we watched. There were people going in and out of it all the time,” said Lauren Wuellette.
Police say the drug lab was making illegal THC and mushroom products.
“From what I understand we have truckers that come in and out of here. And it was a very, very busy place from says 12 o'clock at night to four in the morning. So that seemed a little bit sketchy, but we didn't know about that until the fire broke out,” said Wuellette, “And we were so shocked because the lady that came in was so nice, and we never would have suspected anything.”
They weren’t the only people suspecting anything. We got in touch with the owner of the building who has it listed for sale. When we called to ask about the arson and drug lab, he says it was news to him.
“Oh, I haven’t heard about it yet,” said Michael Hartling.
The owner of the building said before he got off the phone that he would be making some phone calls. We asked him about who was occupying the building but didn’t get an answer.
Right now, this is still an active investigation.
DeAndria Turner is a multi-media journalist at FOX61 News. She can be reached at dturner@fox61.com.
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