Lit fireworks placed in Sanbornton fire chief's mailbox

SANBORNTON — Some might excuse the act of placing fireworks in a mailbox as a prank, but others have a different term for it: arson.

The town’s police department is certainly taking very seriously an incident that happened late Sunday night, in which someone apparently placed several fireworks in the mailbox of the town’s fire chief, then lit the fuse.

“If anyone has any information about who would have done that, we would like to know,” said Police Chief Steve Hankard. Anyone who knows who might be behind this incident is asked to call the police department at 603-286-4323.

It appears to have been an isolated incident. Hankard said there weren’t any other similar types of reports in town — in fact, vandalism in general hasn’t been a problem of late for Sanbornton, Hankard said.

“Like any other town, we will occasionally have the mailbox smashers, but that hasn’t happened in some time,” he said.

Hankard said he visited a fireworks store to see what type of device was used, and he suspects it was a package of rockets, usually around 16 in total, which are sold in a cube with a single fuse protruding. After the fuse is lit, the device is assembled in such a way that the payload of ordnance will ignite in sequence, ideal for a backyard display.

But when placed in a mailbox, it has a different effect, and it could have resulted in a much worse outcome.

“I don’t think people realize the danger that it could have caused,” Hankard said. The force of the first explosion blew open the door of the mailbox, and the rest of the rockets shot out of the mailbox and likely traveled directly across the path of any traffic heading down the road at that time.

“It’s very dangerous. Not only is it destruction of property, which is illegal and the wrong thing to do, it could have injured somebody,” Hankard said. “Obviously, it’s not something to play with, it’s not a game. Somebody could have been seriously hurt by this.”

Paul Dexter, fire chief, was similarly unimpressed.

“I’m disappointed that myself and my family had to go through this,” Dexter said. “If this had been a week earlier with the dry spell we had, fireworks could have sparked a large brush fire, in a residential area, at 11:30 at night,” which might not have been noticed until many homes were already in danger.

“And then there’s just the plain destruction of property, it’s pretty disconcerting that we would allow stuff like this to happen in our communities,” Dexter said. “It’s not horseplay, it’s not toilet papering someone’s house, it’s real destruction.”