In an early Wednesday raid on a Winthrop Harbor home, police and federal agents found a large supply of dangerous chemicals that the resident said was used for fireworks shows.
Winthrop Harbor police said they launched the raid on the home on the 500 block of Russel Road after receiving information that materials that can be used as explosives were being stored there.
But Jeffrey Thompson, 24, who lives in the house with his parents, said he owns a special-effects and pyrotechnics business and was storing the chemicals for a man who works with him.
“I was holding (the materials) for a friend because he’s constantly moving,” said Thompson, who has not been charged with anything. “As far as I knew, we had a small equivalent here. We had no intention of harming anyone or anything.”
Citations for a number of local building and fire code violations are pending against Thompson, Winthrop Harbor Police Chief Joel Brumlik said, and the Thompson family was ordered to move out of the home because the violations created a hazardous condition.
Meanwhile, Assistant Lake County State’s Atty. Matthew Chancey, chief of felony review, said prosecutors will consider possible criminal charges.
Brad Benning, an emergency response coordinator with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said many of the chemicals found can be purchased legally and are often used to make fireworks. Most of the chemicals were in their original containers and were still labeled, though some of the agents were in juice jars, Benning said.
Among the chemicals were nitrate compounds, phosphorous, sodium metal and sulfuric acid, Benning said. Sodium metal can ignite on its own, making it particularly hazardous.
“The concern was that they were in a residential neighborhood,” Benning said. “If they are mixed, you could have a fire or a small explosion.”
Winthrop Harbor police became concerned enough about the potential misuse of the chemicals that they alerted the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which contacted the Cook County Sheriff’s Department Bomb Squad because Lake County does not have such a team.
At 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, Winthrop Harbor police served the search warrant at the home and, assisted by a bomb-sniffing dog, the detectives and federal investigators found numerous boxes containing the chemicals in a locked area of the basement, police said. Thompson admitted to police that he had obtained and stored the materials, Brumlik said.
Because of the volatile nature of the chemicals, the Winthrop Harbor Fire Department’s hazardous materials team and the EPA were called in.
