(NECN: John Moroney, Boston) - A man lost both of his hands in a dangerous explosion and fire in Boston’s Hyde Park neighborhood.
Boston Police say that man was mixing chemicals in his apartment when the blast happened.
Investigators remained on scene late afternoon Friday. They found a number of chemicals inside the apartment where that explosion took place.
A law enforcement source tells NECN that those chemicals are consistent with chemicals that are used for making fireworks.
Members of the Boston Bomb Squad entered the building at Riley Road, where an explosion Friday morning blew off the hands of a man who, according to police, was experimenting with chemicals in his basement apartment.
The explosion took place shortly after 9 o'clock. It blew out the window of the basement apartment, sparked a fire and filled the entire building with smoke.
EMS said eight people were transported to Boston hospitals. A lot of people who live in the building were still sleeping when the blast occurred.
Police said the man who lost his hands in the explosion did have a roommate who was not hurt in the blast but had to be treated for respiratory problems.
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Boston Police have been helped out by Boston Fire, the FBI and the ATF.
Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said at this point in the investigation it does not appear as though the explosion or the chemical experiment are connected to drugs or terrorism. Authorities said they did find a significant stockpile of chemicals in the apartment.
“The victim was spoken to before he went to the hospital and he told us he was experimenting. That’s all we have at this point in time,” Davis said. “It’s too early to say exactly what his motivations were or what he was trying to build or put together inside that apartment.”
Authorities did allow people who live in the adjacent building to go back into their apartments. There are a couple of apartments over that basement apartment that remain roped off and they are not allowing people to go back into those. They are testing the air to see if it is safe, given the chemicals that were in that apartment down below.
Police said the man who lost both of his hands was not known to them prior to this incident.
They plan to go through his computer and other files as they investigate why he was experimenting with chemicals in his apartment.
