There are lots of important things to consider when choosing an apartment, house or trailer: commute time, distance to retail centers, public schools -- but perhaps the most important thing of all is, "How do I get rid of that stagnant meth-lab odor?"
Well, thanks to companies like USA Decon, you too can make sure your new abode is suitably free of residues left behind by any former occupants who engaged in the fine art of meth manufacturing. Had we known this sorta thing existed years ago, we never would've agreed to live in that one trailer in the desert for six months. Here are some things USA Decon's CEO, John DiGulio, told us in an e-mail about former meth lab cleanin':

Waste byproducts: "The danger of chemical fires and explosions extends beyond methamphetamine manufacture. After producing the finished methamphetamine, clandestine lab workers are typically left with 5-6 pounds of hazardous waste for each pound of finished methamphetamine produce."

GOBLES - A rural Gobles man is lucky to be alive after his suspected meth lab exploded Sunday, burning him severely, Van Buren County Sheriff's officers said.

The man, 52, is in stable condition in a medically induced coma at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo following the 5:23 a.m. meth fire, Sgt. Dan Abbott said.

Police did not identify the man because no arrest warrant has yet been issued.

But a neighbor identified him as John "Johnny" Uminn.

His mother drove him to Bronson after the fire and explosion in the garage at 27242 12th Ave. in Pine Grove Township, and Uminn told hospital staff what had happened.

Police said they then obtained a search warrant and found the suspected meth lab and lab components in the garage. Uminn's mother told police her son was so badly burned that skin was falling off his hands, and police found some of his fingernails in the garage.

EDDING, Calif. -- A methamphetamine lab is blamed for an apartment explosion in Redding early Wednesday morning.
It happened in 1400 block of Orange Avenue in Redding about 12:30 a.m.
One man suffered severe burns and was taken from the scene by ambulance. He was treated at Mercy Medical Center.
"He had skin and plastic hanging off of him," said Trenton Duncan, who helped pull the burned man out of the burning apartment. "He was pretty bad."

STURGIS – Two police officers had to be treated after a meth lab explosion.

Sturgis police were originally called to a fight at an apartment on East Hatch Street early Wednesday morning. They found two people with injuries and a blood trail to another apartment with smoke coming from under the door.

When the two officers entered, they were exposed to meth fumes. They were treated and released for illness and symptoms from the exposure.

Fire personnel were called in for hazmat containment and to decontaminate one of the suspects. Police arrested both suspects on meth charges.

A portable methamphetamine lab exploded in a man’s pants as he scuffled with a state trooper who chased after him when he noticed an unusual chemical smell.

David Williams, 54, was caught with the homemade device - also known as the 'shake and bake' method - after an Oklahoma Highway Patrol officer pulled over the SUV he was travelling in for speeding.

While issuing a speeding fine to the driver the officer sniffed a suspicious chemical odor and began to question Williams.

But Williams made a run for it and the officer reported that the meth was leaking down Williams’ leg as he tried to escape shortly after midnight on Friday morning.

The officer gave chase and soon caught Williams. As the pair struggled the ‘active meth lab’ stashed in Williams' pants burst - covering him in the substance.

Medical personnel checked over Williams at the scene but -  despite the explosion - he was not injured.

The portable meth lab, also called the 'one pot' method, is produced in a plastic bottle.

DAYTONA BEACH -- A man was severely burned in an explosion Friday morning while making methamphetamine at a Fairway Estates house known for drug activity, police said.

The Daytona Beach Police Department at 6:50 a.m. learned Kenneth Roberts, 44, had burns and injuries consistent with chemical exposure, possibly a meth lab explosion or related fire, according Detective John Creamer, police spokesman.

Roberts' injuries were so severe he was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center to treat his burns. He was in stable condition later Friday, Creamer said.

Officers responding to 1210 Margina Ave. found the remnants of a fire consistent with materials used in the production of methamphetamine.

t's a clean-up job with serious danger involved.

A specially trained crew was called out Wednesday after two Belmont County parole officers discovered a meth lab in a Barnesville man's basement.

Now the man is in jail, and the lab has been dismantled by experts.

It all started when two parole officers dropped in to check on 22-year-old Michael Malesky of Sandy Ridge Road, outside Barnesville.

The parole officers told 7 News they noticed drugs in the house, and then noticed other items--Coleman lantern fluid, denatured alcohol, pseudo ephedrine, and cold packs.

Together in one place, those items spell meth lab.

And they found one in the basement.

VINA, Ala.- One man was injured in a house fire investigators believe was caused by a meth lab explosion.

Vina fire and Hodges/Vina police responded to residence on hwy 19 in Vina around 6 p.m. Monday. When they arrived emergency first responders found 33-year-old Johny Bell with possible chemical burns.

Bell was transported to Eliza Coffee Hospital where he was treated for possible chemical burns and turned over to law enforcement on drug drug charges.

Northern Vanderburgh County farmer Randy Kron nervously grinned while explaining his plan this year to grow crops on about 2,000 acres across Southwestern Indiana.

Kron said he took a gamble by starting the growing season early. This year's warmer temps and sunnier skies put him roughly a month ahead of schedule to plant corn. By Easter weekend, the majority of his crop was planted and the anhydrous ammonia applied.

Kron said hopefully his luck with temperatures will be the same as keeping the ammonia out of the hands of eager old-fashioned methamphetamine cooks.

Four years ago, the white cylindrical wagons he uses to apply the ammonia were a target for meth cooks. But this year, Kron said ,he's had more time to worry about the weather. Law enforcement and anhydrous co-op managers around the region said the same.

Today, more meth cooks continue to opt for the more portable one-pot method than risk stealing the ammonia from area farms. And with a new additive to help early planting tainting supplies, anhydrous thefts have been nonexistent. But like the weather, members of the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Drug Task Force said it may be too early to determine the impact.

Over the past two years, the one-pot meth lab surpassed the larger and more confusing anhydrous version. Meth cooks now use a first-aid cold pack to create the ammonia they once stole. The new method brought the drug manufacture into urban areas such as Evansville, where there are more places to hide and supplies are available at most local drugstores.

"The one-pot method is more user-friendly, so more people tend to use it," said Brock Hensley, an Evansville Police Department detective assigned to the Drug Task Force. "But it may be too early to tell."

A meth lab found in a Cheney apartment last week has led to an Eastern Washington University student’s arrest and a multi-agency investigation.
Patrick M. Janicke, 22, was arrested April 11 for malicious mischief, manufacturing meth and using a building for drug purposes. Janicke was reported to police by his roommate for slashing tires in their apartment complex’s parking lot; the roommate claimed he was not aware that Janicke, an EWU science major, was cooking meth, instead assuming he was doing chemistry homework.
Police discovered the meth lab in Janicke’s apartment on the 2700 block of Al Ogdon Way after arresting him for slashing tires.
Cheney Police Cmdr. Rick Campbell said the incident began late on the evening of April 10, when Janicke left something in the apartment’s kitchen that caught fire. Janicke’s roommate put out the fire and threw out the substance, which angered Janicke and spurred an argument. He then went outside and began slashing tires.

A crude method for manufacturing methamphetamine is putting the safety of the general public in jeopardy, including those who would never intentionally get anywhere near the drug, according to police.

The so-called “shake-and-bake” method involves combining raw, unstable ingredients in a container and leaving it somewhere to bake, typically outside. Manufacturers often use two-liter plastic soda bottles and place them near walking trails and rural roadsides.

Steuben County Undersheriff Ray Dell said ingredients such as cold medicine are mixed with common household chemicals, and they produce enough meth for the user to get a few hits.
“It’s a cocktail of hazardous chemicals, and its use, especially in southern Steuben County, is growing at an unbelievable rate,” Dell said.

Not only are the chemicals toxic, but the mini meth labs can explode with enough force to maim.
“(An explosion) occurs if the appropriate formula is not used,” said Mike Sprague, the director of the Steuben County Office of Emergency services. “People often toss the two-liter bottles on the side of the road so if it doesn’t react properly, it won’t blow up at their residence.”

ince the advent of the so-called “shake and bake” or “one-pot” meth-making process, the number of incidents involving explosions and fires — and serious injuries — has increased dramatically in Franklin County.
“We’ve worked more of these (meth-related fires) in the last two years than we did in the previous decade,” remarked Detective Sgt. Jason Grellner, head of the Franklin County Narcotics Enforcement Unit.
Last month, two people were burned, one seriously, when a one-pot meth lab exploded as they were driving in a car near St. Clair. A third suspect in the car was not injured. The vehicle was destroyed.
The man who sustained serious injuries had been holding the lab — contained in a 2-liter plastic bottle — on his lap when it exploded.
County authorities do not keep specific records on the number of people who have been burned or otherwise injured in meth lab explosions and fires, but they agree that it’s much higher since the one-pot meth burst on the scene in 2009.
“In the last two years, 80 percent of the meth lab fires I’ve investigated have involved one-pot labs,” said Jim Schuhmacher, Franklin County arson investigator.

ROCK HILL, SC (WBTV) - It was not the first stop to cook meth for the suspects, Robert Catoe and Heather Latham in York County.  The Multi Jurisdictional Drug Task Force Commander Marvin Brown says they've discovered now six different motels in York County where they know the duo had been making the drugs.

He also told WBTV's Trent Faris through the course of the investigation that number could triple.

Brown said Catoe and Latham would check into the motels under aliases, moving their meth making materials around by van.

Friday, while she was cleaning the room the owner of the Hillside Motel told WBTV when Catoe and Latham checked in last week they told her they were moving to Rock Hill from Arizona and need a place to stay while they looked for a house to buy.

"They jumped from motel room to motel room cooking meth and we knew that so we tried to hone in on them to try and stop this before someone got hurt," said Brown

The owner who didn't want to be identified went on to say Latham would pay for their stay every day, and three days prior to the bust Catoe paid the bill.  The change prompted her to have her house keeper check on the room and nothing was out of the ordinary.

WOOSTER -- After two deputies became sick after a January meth lab bust in Orrville, law enforcement officers now handle suspects differently.

Medway Drug Enforcement Agency and five area law enforcement agencies participated in a raid on a large-scale methamphetamine lab operating at 861 McGill St., Orrville.

A couple of deputies who were transporting the suspects started suffering from headaches, and they became a little nauseated, Medway Director Dave Smith said. He believes they were overcome by fumes coming off of the clothing of the suspects, he added.

The chemicals used to make methamphetamines are extremely dangerous, said Rittman Sgt. Robert Shows, who was involved in the January bust (he was not among those who were overcome by fumes). "Everything in it is flammable, carcinogenic or explosive," he said.

So, the new policy requires the suspects to be stripped out of their clothes and placed in jumpsuits.

"It keeps our transporting officers safer," Sheriff Thomas G. Maurer said.

ELKHART, Ind. — Trash bags on the edge of the road may not be dirty diapers and food scraps. As city officials and a volunteer at the Elkhart Environmental Center found out recently, it could be the remnants of a meth lab.

And local police and firefighters don't have the training to clean them up.

City Councilman Ron Troyer was driving around his district March 27 with the new community affairs officer at the Elkhart Police Department, Sgt. Wayne Bias. Among things they looked at was trash dumped along the side of Perkins Street on city property at the Elkhart Environmental Center.

A number of trash bags and tires sat just below and within 15 feet of a sign that warns of a $2,500 fine for dumping trash, Troyer said.

The Elkhart Street Department was asked to pick up the trash, but Commissioner Marty Morgan told Troyer it was determined the trash was actually meth trash and it was tagged with yellow ribbons to be picked up by the Indiana State Police, which has a special unit to dispose of meth labs.

The remains included tubing, tin foil, pseudoephedrine, bottles with liquid in them and cakes of white powder residue, Assistant Police Chief Tim Balyeat said.

"The police department is not trained, is not equipped and does not have the storage facilities" to deal with meth labs, he said.

More than 10 days later — the bags were still there, Troyer said.

Mayor Dick Moore's office ordered the materials cleaned up, Balyeat said. A short time later, the Elkhart Fire Department's Hazardous Materials Team was in special suits and respiratory protection containing the bags.

Police in Boaz, Alabama, discovered a meth lab in a Walmart ladies’ bathroom.

Police Chief Terry Davis said maintenance workers cleaning the bathroom discovered a one-pot meth lab. The device or pot consisted of a Nestle water bottle. Found with the bottle were five packets of pseudoephedrine, a main component of methamphetamine.

Investigators are working with store security teams to analyze security footage to pinpoint a suspect, he said. So-called shake-and-bake meth labs require few ingredients to make a few grams of meth. The shopping list: drain cleaner, lithium batteries and decongestants found in common cold medicines such as Sudafed. All of these items may be found easily at stores, including Walmart, Davis said.

CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. (WTW) — Inside a Crawfordsville rental property, the tenants liked to cook.

But what they were cooking got them busted, Indiana State Police say. In the kitchen, police found everything it took to make meth.

At the Days Inn in Anderson recently came a fiery explosion. Police say the same thing was cooking. But this time, it burst into flames.

Methamphetamine labs are more than just dangerous and illegal. They leave a mess -- an environmental hazard that, according to state law, must be cleaned up.

And it takes a special process, certification and inspectors who scour the property in full-gear Hazmat suits and respirators to do the dirty work.

Welcome to the world of meth lab cleanup companies, a growing and profitable business, especially in Indiana, where certain pockets of the state are hotbeds for labs.

The state, which ranks in the top five for meth production, has 22 companies certified by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to decontaminate properties.

Several houses were evacuated about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday after materials used to make methamphetamine and chemicals for making explosives were found in a house near Chandler Park, officials said.

The materials, found in a house near 22nd Street and 61st West Avenue, could have been volatile enough to explode and damage nearby homes, police said.

The Police Department's bomb squad began searching the house shortly after 11:30 a.m., Capt. Jonathan Brooks said.

"Six one-pot method (meth) labs were discovered along with lab equipment reminicent of labs used to make meth 10 to 15 years ago," Tulsa Fire Department spokesman Stan May said Wednesday night.

"Toulene, acetone, peroxide, alumium powder, and sodium hydroxide were just a few of the chemicals found at and removed from the residence," he said.

Don Morris Alexander, 41, was arrested on complaints of endeavoring to manufacture drugs and manufacturing or selling bombs or explosives, Tulsa Jail records show.

NOBLE COUNTY, Ind. (WANE) A sergeant with the Noble County Sheriff’s Department came across a chemical odor, which led to a one pot meth lab inside a home.  The off duty officer made the discovery while jogging Sunday night.

An Umatilla police officer was taken to the emergency room after a substance he was testing for drugs at a suspicious home apparently turned out to be part of a recipe for meth -- and exploded in his face.
A hazardous materials unit was called to the scene and officer Josh Brown was treated at an area hospital and released, according to Police Chief Douglas Foster.
Clayton Tabor, 22, of Umatilla, was charged with loitering and prowling after being found hiding in the woods behind the Orange Street home.
Tabor also was charged with violation of probation and placed in the Lake County jail without bail.
According to Umatilla police, Brown responded to 154 Orange Court on Wednesday to reports of people being in an abandoned home.
Brown spotted a bag filled a white powdery substance, candles, sheets and other items. The officer assumed the powder was methamphetamine. But when he put a small amount of the substance in a test kit -- it turned black, exploded and shot out of his hand and sprayed him in the face with "noxious gas."
He was treated by EMS before being taken to a hospital. It was not clear what injuries he received.
"He's was released, so its seems he's OK," Foster said.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A hazmat call last week at the East Lake Landfill in Clearlake led to the discovery of four methamphetamine labs.

Sgt. Steve Brooks of the Lake County Sheriff's Office said that on Thursday, March 22, at approximately 12:30 p.m. the Lake County Narcotics Task Force responded to the landfill at the request of the Lake County Fire Protection District HAZMAT Team.

Brooks said the Lake County Fire HAZMAT team had responded to the landfill after the operator of a bulldozer had run over a black plastic garbage bag as he was moving garbage.

The contents of the bag began to off gas, which produced a large visible chemical cloud, Brooks said.

The narcotics detectives located several two liter bottles containing both solid and liquid materials, according to Brooks.

Inside a Crawfordsville rental property, the tenants liked to cook.

But what they were cooking got them busted last month, Indiana State Police say. In the kitchen, police found everything it took to make meth.

At the Days Inn in Anderson last week came a fiery explosion. Police say the same thing was cooking. But this time, it burst into flames.

Methamphetamine labs are more than just dangerous and illegal. They leave a mess -- an environmental hazard that, according to state law, must be cleaned up.

And it takes a special process, certification and inspectors who scour the property in full-gear Hazmat suits and respirators to do the dirty work.

A fire in a West Auckland apartment this morning started with a vapour explosion caused by chemicals used to make drugs.

Three people were injured in the fire which destroyed the Hobsonville Rd property.

The house is thought to have been a "reasonably extensive" P-lab.

One man is in Middlemore Hospital with serious burns while two others were taken to Waitakere Hospital suffering from smoke inhalation, St John ambulance said.

MORROW, OH (FOX19) – A Morrow Police officer who pulled a man over on what appeared to be a simple speeding ticket soon found a lot more than he expected.

When Sergeant Matt Landrum stopped 23-year-old Jacob Yost of Hillsboro, OH for speeding on US 22/3 in Morrow, he says he also found that Yost was driving under suspension. When he asked if he could search the car, Yost agreed, then volunteered that there was a meth lab in the trunk.

Sgt. Landrum didn’t find a meth lab, but he did find all the ingredients for making meth, including pseudoephedrine pills, Muriatic acid (also known as hydrochloric), lithium batteries, a moisture absorbing chemical, and more.  He says these are ingredients for the “one-pot” method of making methamphetamine.

The find led to a big response at US 22/3 and front street.  One witness counted 8 police cars from the Sheriff’s Office, Hamilton Township, and Morrow, along with two fire trucks.  Fortunately for the authorities, since meth production had not begun, hazmat crews were not required.

Two people were burned in a morning methamphetamine laboratory explosion that rocked an Anderson motel.

Guests at the Days Inn Motel at 5706 S. Scatterfield Road were awaken at 7:22 a.m. by a blast from room 239. Inside police say a man and a woman were cooking meth.

“While the officer was enroute to the call, another call came in about a partially nude man running around in the parking lot of a grocery store with severe burns,” said Detective Joel Sandefur of the Anderson Police Department. “That person ended up being the suspect from the motel room and we asked him how he got his burns and he said he was making meth.”

Tracy Price II, 31, of Anderson, is hospitalized at Wishard Memorial Hospital. Mellissa Ellingwood, 35, of Anderson, was also burned and released from custody.

WEST POINT, Miss. (WTVA) - Local law enforcement officers and firefighters are taking a class to learn about meth labs.

"It can be very deadly," says Ted Krayer, program coordinator with the Alabama Fire College. "It can be very explosive. It has all the hazards that you can think of with chemicals from corrosive to flammability."

For those attending the two-day seminar, the information will teach them the warning signs that could save a life.

"We're trying to help our firefighters learn more about what to look for and what the hazards are," adds Mark Moss, senior instructor with the state Fire Academy. "[This way,] they don't get contaminated or injured by dealing with any type of lab or activites that they may have."

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -
The city of Jacksonville has condemned a Baymeadows hotel that was the site of a meth lab bust Monday.

Officials said it will be up to the Homestead Studio Suites on Western Way to pay for testing and cleaning by a certified outside company, and it's not clear how long all of that will take.

The company must have licensed environmental hygienists and contractors. Environmental hygienists have to conduct testing of the hotel's interior and determine the effects, if any, of a meth production for the building to be reopened and what, if any, items need to be replaced.

According to Code Enforcement, if any structure is proven to have a meth lab in it, the structure is condemned.

Investigators are looking for suspects connected to a methamphetamine lab that may have caused the fire on Garcon Point that closed a section of Interstate 10 earlier this week.

Agents from the Florida Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement scoured the scene of the fire's origin and found evidence linked to the one-pot — or "shake and bake" — method of making meth, said Joe Zwierzchowski, wildfire mitigation specialist with the Florida Forest Service.

When Victoria County Constable Richard Castillo tried to serve an eviction notice Monday morning, he didn't expect his week to get off to such an explosive start.

"I was serving a writ of possession. We serve civil papers on a routine basis, but you never know what you'll find," Castillo said.

What Castillo found was a suspected methamphetamine lab at 1994 Boehm Road near DaCosta.

After the resident refused to answer Castillo's knocks or verbal requests to open the door, Victoria County Sheriff's Office deputies arrived to provide assistance.

The suspect, Scott Allen Fisher, 49, was hiding in an outbuilding and is thought to have set the suspected meth lab in the building on fire, causing an explosion, said Victoria County Sheriff T. Michael O'Connor.

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Black smoke filling the sky Thursday morning led a police officer to finding not only a fire, but a suspected shake-and-bake methamphetamine lab.
Poplar Bluff police detective Corey Mitchell was driving when he saw black smoke, which he thought was a house fire. He found the source of the smoke to be a fire in the front yard of a garage and approached Nathan Montgomery who was near the fire.

"Whenever I made contact with him, his demeanor instantly changed when he realized I was law enforcement," Mitchell said.

As he was talking to Montgomery, Mitchell said he saw a man and a woman enter a nearby garage and close its doors.

Mitchell said he could smell a chemical odor he associated with the manufacturing of methamphetamine coming from the garage.

Methamphetamine busts in North Carolina reached a record high last year due to new methods of cooking the drug and more organized efforts to access it, according to state Attorney General Roy Cooper and county sheriffs.

Meth lab busts totaled 344 in 2011 - a 57 percent increase from 2006, when new state laws restricted the purchase of pseudoephedrine, meth's key ingredient.

Cooper said the laws are working because the number of large-scale meth operations is down, but busts have risen with the popularity of the simpler and cheaper "one pot," or "shake and bake" method.

"It has escalated to the point where it accounts for about half of the labs we bust," Cooper said, noting that the state's first one-pot lab bust occurred in 2009.

Springfield) -- Dade County authorities are still looking for two people escaping from a meth lab explosion last night in Greenfield.

 The Greenfield Police Department responded to a 911 call from a home on Maple Street.

Neighbors say they saw two people leaving the scene after the explosion.

Neighbors also say the explosion shook their homes last night.

Now, the aftermath could mean long term effects for a small town west of Springfield.Greenfield resident Heather White grew up in this small town with just over a thousand people, it's rural and a quiet community, but the house explosion shocked neighbors. "I ran out the door and there was nothing going on until all of a sudden every light and cameras it seemed like, but it was devastating to know it was the neighbors house," said White.

...
It's no wonder South Carolina ranks among the top ten states with the highest number of meth lab busts last year. According to an Associated Press report, 265 meth lab seizures took place in S.C. in 2011.
...

GREENVILLE, SC (FOX Carolina) -
Fire and Hazmat crews were called to a Greenville hotel Thursday morning for a fire that turned out to be a meth lab, according to police.

Dispatch said they received a fire call Thursday morning for a room at the Regal Inn Motel on Wade Hampton Blvd.

FOX Carolina was at the scene as crews roped off a room before leaving the scene. One hotel room was taped off with chemicals outside on the ground.

Panama City Beach Police arrested a man Tuesday in connection with the explosion of a meth lab Sunday night in a Laketown Wharf condominium.

Jeffery Stewart Ackiss, 44, faces charges of manufacturing meth, possession of meth and arson of an occupied dwelling.

Police say Ackiss became the lead suspect during their initial investigation of the fire. They found him Tuesday at a friend's home in Panama City Beach.

Police said Ackiss had severe burns to his arms and feet, apparently from the explosion.

PANAMA CITY BEACH — The Panama City Beach Police Department is investigating a meth lab that sparked a fire at the Lake Town Wharf condominium, police wrote in a news release.

The fire set off the sprinkler system and caused several thousand dollars in damage, officials said. Investigators found several chemicals associated with the production of meth and “finished methamphetamine product,” the news release stated.

Chief Drew Whitman said the fire was caused by an a “shake and bake” meth lab that exploded. In a “shake and bake” lab, meth makers place all the ingredients into a small plastic container and shake them. The flammable mixture then creates meth but also sometimes blows up.

Whitman said officers are trying to track down the suspects who left the condo when the sprinklers went off. A security guard discovered the flooded room about an hour later, Whitman said.

STAPLETON, Alabama -- Authorities arrested a man this morning following an explosion believed to be caused by a methamphetamine lab.
...Around 5:30 a.m., authorities arrived to the site of a reported explosion on the 14000 block of Melvin Johnson Rd. When deputies arrived they encountered Johnston outside the residence. Deputies asked him if anyone else was inside and he stated there was. A deputy entered the residence and located a 16-year-old female in the bedroom. She was evacuated from the residence by the deputy and was unharmed, according to the sheriff's office .
While on scene, deputies and fire personnel saw items consistent with a clandestine lab. Baldwin County Drug Task Force investigators responded to the scene. A search warrant was obtained and executed. Several "one pot" labs were located inside and outside the residence. Precursor chemicals, methamphetamine, marijuana, a loaded pistol and drug paraphernalia were located. Investigators rendered the labs safe and collected the evidence, according to the sheriff's office.

DARE COUNTY, N.C. (WAVY) - Deputies on the Outer Banks have made another meth lab related arrest at a motel.

The Dare County Sheriff's Office raided the unidentified motel room in Manteo on Feb. 15. Chief Deputy Steve Hoggard said deputies found a man trying to manufacture methamphetamine in the room.

Deputies said 31-year-old David Blouir was mixing ingredients in a container to get high. The method of manufacturing meth is known as "one pot" or "shake and bake."

SANTA FE, N.M. -- Continuing coverage on a suspected meth lab that led to evacuations in Santa Fe last week. It turns out, it wasn't a meth lab at all.
The chemicals that sent two police officers to the hospital were things you probably have in your home.
Captain Aric Wheeler says they've never been in a situation he can remember where chemicals this strong turn out not to be a meth lab.
They were taken into custody, hand cuff, handcuffed and covered in white protective jumpsuits, two jumpsuits. Two tenants at a small apartment complex on Agua Fria were initially suspected of cooking meth.
"We don't try and mess around with these things. Obviously they can be fatal," said Wheeler.
The chemical vapors strong enough to send two cops to the hospital was a common household cleaner, "drano."Drano.
The residents were trying to clean out a clogged drain while next door, neighbors were using acetone to remove floor tile. Together they became a dangerous combination.
"Even though they weren't a meth lab, they still were very toxic in the odors they were emitting," said Wheeler.
The scene Friday afternoon caused quit a commotion. Firefighters and hazmat crews descended on the apartment and even evacuated nearby neighbors. Captain Wheeler stands behind the department's decision.
"We have to take the measures necessary to ensure the public safety," said Wheeler.
Action 7 News tried to talk to neighbors, knocking on door, but were told neighbors were still embarrassed and too angry to talk.
Captain Wheeler says in this case they'd rather be wrong than right, because a meth lab in the middle of Santa Fe is a danger the do not want to deal with.
Wheeler says officers were on high alert because meth labs aren't common in the city, but just that morning they found a mobile meth lab and thought the two location locations might be connected.
The tenants refused to allow police into the home and Wheeler says that was also suspicious because usually when that happens, people have something to hide.
Copyright 2012 by KOAT.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

WATERTOWN TWP. — No contamination was detected in the area surrounding a meth lab that exploded Monday night in a densely populated mobile home park in southern Clinton County, authorities said.

Officials with the Mid-Michigan District Health Department inspected the mobile home park Tuesday in the 7700 block of West Grand River Avenue and saw no need for concern.

The explosion, which happened inside a mobile home, blew out two of the home’s windows. The fire extinguished itself, officials said.

INDIANAPOLIS -- The number of methamphetamine labs found by Indiana State Police climbed again in 2011, hitting a record high, officials said.
Indiana State Police dismantled 1,437 meth labs in the state in 2011, up from 1,395 in 2010. ISP began tracking the number of dismantled meth labs in 2006, when it found 803 of them.
The discoveries led to the arrests of 1,420 people in 2011, up from 1,252 in 2010.
ISP said the most popular way to make meth now is by using what they call the "one-pot method" in which all ingredients are mixed in a drinking bottle or a jar.
"The cook process combines incompatible chemicals that easily cause flash fires or explosions," said ISP Sgt. John Bowling. "It also produces a smaller, yet just as potent amount of methamphetamine."

LUCASVILLE --Two people from Salt Creek Road have been arrested as a result of an investigation into a brush fire officials say was caused by the production of methamphetamine.

Crystal R. Rigsby, 29, and Daniel L. Maynard, 36, both of 1909 Salt Creek Road, have been charged with illegal manufacture of methamphetamine, a second-degree felony; illegal assembly of chemicals to manufacture methamphetamine, a third-degree felony; and possession of criminal tools, a fifth-degree felony.

The investigation began about 11:15 p.m. Tuesday when the sheriff's office was called to investigate an arson-related brush fire from earlier in the day at 1909 Salt Creek Road, according to a release from the sheriff.

Upon arrival, deputies reported smelling a strong chemical odor around the home. During a search, deputies allegedly found a clandestine methamphetamine lab and numerous other narcotic related items.

Bio Safe Southern Ohio was called to the scene to neutralize the chemicals that were found.

RUTLEDGE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- Grainger County Deputies raided a house, finding an active meth lab. When one of the people inside tried to flush the meth lab down the toilet, it exploded.

Deputies went to the house on Highway 92 in Rutledge early Thursday morning. They arrested five people: Krystal Holbert, Johnny Lee, James Keck, Brandy Gibson and Cecille Evans for making meth.


Holbert faces additional charges for aggravated burglary, theft, criminal simulation and tampering with evidence.

Deputies says she is the one who ran through the house and tried to flush the meth lab down the toilet. It exploded and burned her face. Crews took her to the hospital, then to the Grainger County Detention Center.

ST. LOUIS—A crude new method of making methamphetamine poses a risk even to Americans who never get anywhere near the drug: It is filling hospitals with thousands of uninsured burn patients requiring millions of dollars in advanced treatment -- a burden so costly that it's contributing to the closure of some burn units.

So-called shake-and-bake meth is produced by combining raw, unstable ingredients in a 2-liter soda bottle. But if the person mixing the noxious brew makes the slightest error, such as removing the cap too soon or accidentally perforating the plastic, the concoction can explode, searing flesh and causing permanent disfigurement, blindness or even death.

An Associated Press survey of key hospitals in the nation's most active meth states showed that up to a third of patients in some burn units were hurt while making meth, and most were uninsured. The average treatment costs $6,000 per day. And the average meth patient's hospital stay costs $130,000 -- 60 percent more than other burn patients, according to a study by doctors at a burn center in Kalamazoo, Mich.

WILKESBORO --
The number of methamphetamine labs being found in Northwest North Carolina is on the rise again.

The discovery of clandestine meth labs had dropped markedly after a 2006 law required that certain cold medicines — ones that can be used in making meth — be placed behind pharmacy counters so they aren't as easily accessible. But the numbers are rising again as a simpler "one pot" method of producing methamphetamine spreads.

Wilkes County saw a spike to 19 meth labs in 2011, the fourth most of any county in the state, according to statistics from the State Bureau of Investigation. That's up from the seven labs busted in 2010. Officials found just two labs in 2009, one in 2008 and none in 2007.

Watauga County had 22 clandestine meth labs in 2011, the second most of any county in the state. Watauga had 20 labs found in 2010, but just three in 2009, five in 2008 and three in 2007.

Those local trends mirror a statewide trend that saw clandestine labs drop in 2006, but start climbing again in recent years.

Springfield, Mo — A Springfield man is charged with first degree arson tonight after investigators say his meth lab sparked a fire in an apartment. Firefighters say the chemical fumes put other tenants in danger. Dale Penechar is charged with first degree arson.

An eviction sign is hung on the door of the apartment the fire started in on west Walnut Street. “It bothers me a lot the fumes could make the entire apartment, if not the building, poisonous,” neighbor Ruth Fleming said. Fleming lives right across the hall from the apartment that caught fire. She says meth is a problem. “This is where I can afford to live right now and it's prevalent,” Fleming said.

Many people who live in the eight unit building were potentially exposed. “Smoke is bad enough as it is however when you add the chemicals being used in meth production it adds significantly to the danger,” Springfield Fire Marshal Bill Spence said. “When you start heating them in a fire and you are putting them in the atmosphere they are an inhalation issue. People in the immediate area are inhaling those chemicals and those toxins.”

AS part of their continuing joint effort to smash secret drug laboratories and storage facilities in Metro Manila and other parts of the country, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Philippine National Police Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force are offering valuable tips on how to spot an illegal drug lab or a home-made laboratory where millions or even billions of pesos worth of amphetamines are being ‘cooked’

PDEA chair Undersecretary Jose S. Gutierrez Jr. said the following tips can be used by the public in identifying secret drug factories where shabu, Ketamine and other dangerous drugs are locally manufactured.

Once a clan lab is spotted, Gutierrez said an individual can join the PDEA “Operation: Private Eye” which is a reward and incentive scheme designed to encourage private citizens to report to PDEA any suspected illegal drug activities particularly the presence of clan labs and so-called shabu ‘tiyangges’ in their community.

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Police have arrested three people they say were in the Arayan brotherhood, accusing them of running a meth lab in Albuquerque

Wednesday night officers responded to an apartment near San Pedro Drive and Kathryn Avenue, after neighbors complained that something smelled so bad it made some of them sick.

Police say they found a man and a woman cleaning up what looked like a meth lab.

They also caught another man they say was involved and called in a hazmat team to clean up the chemicals.

Nearly half of the 843 meth labs reported to the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs in 2011 were found within the Tulsa city limits, officials said.

The number of discarded or active labs located by law enforcement set records for the city and the state.

Despite recent expansions of the state's tracking system for pseudoephedrine and law enforcement's efforts to curb the epidemic, more tools are needed, said OBNDD spokesman Mark Woodward.

Tulsa police worked 429 meth labs in 2011, said Tulsa Police Officer Jason Willingham. The total shattered the previous year's record of 323 with an increase of more than 30 percent.

Dyer County Sheriff's narcotics officers arrested a suspect in Evansville on Friday evening who was allegedly carrying a working meth lab inside his coat.

The narcotics officers received an anonymous tip that Gourley was cooking meth and went to patrol the area around 5 p.m. Upon their arrival, they observed Gourley walking next to the railroad tracks and approached him for questioning.

Gourley reportedly began acting nervous and started shaking as the officers questioned him. Growing suspicious, the officers asked Gourley if they could search his person and he gave them consent. Officers then discovered an active meth lab on the inside of his coat pocket. The lab was in the form of a plastic bottle with a chemical reaction taking place inside it.
To prevent a possible explosion of the bottle, Jackson placed it on the ground and loosened the top to relieve the pressure and allowed the reaction to continue. The residents were asked to go back inside their homes while the Meth Task Force was called to remove the hazardous chemicals.

Other deputies arrived and searched a wooded area southwest of B Street where they found an old tire with items used in the production of meth. Those items were photographed and confiscated as evidence.

Two Inverness brothers arrested in meth lab bust

A pair of Inverness brothers on Sunday were arrested by Citrus County deputies for allegedly operating a meth lab inside their grandmother's home.

Arrested on Sunday were John Dylan Gromling, 19, and James Gromling, 24, both of whom list 121 N. West Ave., Inverness, as their address.

According to their arrest reports, the CCSO was dispatched to the suspects' grandmother's home after it was reported that a trash can in the home and another in a travel trailer in the back yard were on fire.

A suspected methamphetamine lab exploded in the basement of a house on Pine Avenue in Stroud Township on Saturday night and set part of the house on fire.

Minutes after 7 p.m., at least seven fire trucks and several ambulances descended on the residential area, a few blocks east of North Fifth Street near the municipal building.

Firefighters told neighbors to get away from the home because toxic chemicals were escaping from it.

"They told us, 'Get back, it's about to get toxic,'" said neighbor Curtis Bair.

Though police would not say if the house was a suspected meth lab, dispatchers over the police radio told first responders many times to take caution because methamphetamine was involved in the fire. Also, firefighters at the scene told neighbors they believed a meth lab was responsible for the fire.

Two officers are being treated for chemical contamination after what police said was a small explosion caused by a meth lab in Daytona Beach.

Daytona Beach police said the explosion happened in a room on the fourth floor at the Bermuda House Hotel on North Atlantic Avenue, just south of Plaza Boulevard, around 7:30 a.m.

Officials said the force of the blast shattered glass sliding doors of the room, and the suspect broke them out to throw out the materials used for making meth.

Police evacuated three rooms on the same floor, then later evacuated the entire hotel.

SIOUX FALLS, SD - Authorities have arrested both men suspected of running a meth lab that sparked a New Year's Day fire at a Sioux Falls apartment.

It all started with a report of a fire in an apartment in the Pettigrew Heights neighborhood in central Sioux Falls. The home is between 10th and 11th Streets on South Duluth Avenue.

When crews went inside they put out the fire and found chemicals that are likely to blame for starting the fire. On Thursday, less than an hour after authorities announced they'd issued warrants for the arrests of two men, they caught up with one of them. Ted Witte was driving a pickup, not far from the apartment.

A Lakeland man was killed after an apparent illegal drug concoction exploded while he was driving, effectively causing his death, an eventual crash and his passenger to allegedly flee on foot.

Lakeland Police officials originally classified the investigation as an overturned vehicle with injuries Tuesday, but reclassified the investigation as a death investigation and announced the driver was killed from an illegal chemical explosion Wednesday.

Lakeland Police detectives said Clifford Ellison, 36, was killed when he mixed chemicals in a glass liquor bottle to produce an illegal form of the drug meth, known as "Shake N Bake", and the concoction exploded as he and a passenger were driving near 3955 Drane Field Road in Lakeland.

According to detectives, the explosion sent shrapnel from the bottle into Ellison's neck, causing him to crash the vehicle.

McALESTER — Four McAlester residents have been charged in Pittsburg County District Court in relation to an alleged meth lab explosion that occurred in McAlester last week.
...
“Around 10:35 Wednesday night we got a call about an explosion in the area of Fifth (Street) and Harrison (Avenue),” said MPD Assistant Chief Darrell Miller. When officers arrived on the scene, they smelled a strong chemical smell and tracked it down to a specific home on Harrison Avenue. “The Narcotics Task Force was called out, a search warrant was issued and signed,” Miller said.

Three of five homes where 10 people allegedly produced methamphetamine have been deemed unsafe for habitation because of chemicals found inside the homes that were presumably used to make the drug.

Homes on Rondane Place and Penniman Road in James City as well as a garage apartment behind a home on Wilkins Drive in York County have all been determined to be unsafe because of chemical contamination.

McALESTER — The McAlester Police Department, Pittsburg County Sheriff’s Office and Pittsburg County District Attorney’s Office joint task force took down a methamphetamine lab in McAlester early Thursday morning.

Late Wednesday evening, MPD received a call about an explosion, said MPD Assistant Chief Darrell Miller, and when officers arrived on the scene, they smelled a strong chemical smell and tracked it down to a specific home on Harrison Avenue.

When the District 18 Joint Task Force went to investigate, said Pittsburg Count Sheriff Joel Kerns, task force officers found a full-blown working meth lab and four people were arrested.

West Australian police have busted their 179th clandestine drug lab for the year, and arrested six men.

The lab was discovered in a suburban home in Kewdale, in Perth's southeast, early on Tuesday morning.

The lab is one of seven uncovered in the past six days and the 179th busted by WA Police this year, police say.

Last year, police uncovered 163 clandestine labs.

AKRON, Ohio - It cost hundreds of thousands of state and local tax dollars to clean up methamphetamine labs in 2011, according to Ohio officials.

There have been more than 300 meth lab busts in Ohio during 2011, said Eve Mueller, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Attorney General's office.

Mueller said it costs about $1,800 per lab to dispose of the chemicals used to make methamphetamine.

A state police hazardous material team removed methamphetamine equipment from a Lansford apartment in the 300 block of E. Ridge Street Thursday afternoon.

A cleaning crew hired by the property owner discovered the drug-making equipment in a duplex apartment, and the owner contacted police around 11:30 a.m., police said.

Lansford police officer Brian Horos said state police removed several bottles coated with a white powdery substance, residue left over from the drug-making operation. Horos said it appeared as if batches of the drug had been made in the bottles, a method known on the street as "shake 'n bake" or "one pot" method.

Five Scott County Sheriff's Deputies and a Kentucky State trooper arrived at a home on North Dividing Ridge, near Sadieville, on a tip that there was a possible meth lab inside. Once inside, the officers confronted two men, Jeremy Centers and Philip Jean, the KSP says Centers then went and began to dispose of the evidence, and in the process put everyone's lives in jeopardy.

"It's a very, very dangerous situation that could have been a lot worse," described Kentucky State Trooper, Ron Turley.


"Their meth lab contained lithium batteries, and anytime lithium batteries and water mix, you have a fire, or explosion. It also causes a very toxic fume that caused some bronchial irritation [for everyone exposed]," he explained.

Neighbors, nearby, say they suspected something was wrong at the mobile home, "Yeah, it kind of worried me, there," said Allie Morrison, who lives just a few yards away.

Two Ohio residents are in custody after police found a working meth lab in a Flagstaff motel room late Monday night.
Police found the lab at the Pinecrest Motel, 2818 E. Route 66, at about 11 p.m. during a domestic dispute call, said Sgt. Ryan Beckman of the Metro anti-narcotics task force.
Officers, upon making contact with the guests in the room in question, noticed items of drug paraphernalia in plain sight, Beckman added.
According to information from the police department, the officers also began noticing a "strong chemical odor" coming from inside the room.
"It was actually cooking off when officers got in," Beckman said, adding that the lab was a "one-cook pot" to make a single batch of meth.

LONGMONT - An Allenspark man arrested twice before in Longmont on suspicion of buying supplies to create drug labs apparently overdosed on cough syrup Tuesday morning and told police about a lab he was building in a Longmont motel room, according to police.

Trevan Lake was arrested Tuesday morning on suspicion of violating probation after he was treated and released from Longmont United Hospital, said Longmont police Cmdr. Jeff Satur. Lake spoke with detectives at the hospital and told them he was constructing a lab in a room at the motel.

Police responded to the Lamplighter Motel on


Trevan Lake. (Longmont Police)
Tuesday morning and found the chemicals needed for a methamphetamine lab in room 214, Satur said. Most were still in original containers, but he said some were in the early stages of processing to make the drug. Police broke out windows to the second-floor unit for ventilation and were working on Tuesday to inventory, collect, and remove the chemicals in the lab.
Lake has been arrested twice before in Longmont at the ACE Hardware store after employees there noticed that he was buying the ingredients necessary for methamphetamine. The byproducts of the drug's production are highly toxic and labs can explode.

A 22-year-old man was injured and four families displaced after a methamphetamine lab exploded in a Lexington Drive apartment building.

Tuesday at about 12:18 a.m, emergency medical personnel found a man outside screaming for help, according to a news release from Officer Jim Knoll.

Clarksville Police responded to 205 Lexington and found a man outside with burns to his face and upper body.

Tulsa fire investigators arrested a man after allegedly finding a working meth lab in his backpack.
Fire officials said James Dillon, age and hometown unavailable, was questioned after investigators were doing more work following recent arson fires near the intersection of 5th Street and Madison Avenue.
They noticed a chemical odor, searched his backpack and allegedly found a working "one-pot method" meth lab.

Thursday’s surprise bust of five home meth labs holds a larger lesson. It points up flaws in the safeguards used to prevent criminals from stockpiling over-the-counter medications vital to making the drug.

York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Capt. Troy Lyons said the Virginia Sheriffs Association will seek legislation in the General Assembly next month requiring pharmacies to report sales of pseudoephedrine to a centralized database.

That would enable retailers to enforce existing limits on the amount of the drug that can be purchased by consumers.

Psueudoephedrine is the crux of meth labs and is circumvented scientifically in the popular TV series “Breaking Bad.”

Two men who appeared to be cooking or preparing to cook methamphetamine were arrested late Saturday inside a Colorado Springs post office, police said.

Officers checking on reports of homeless people staking a claim in the foyer of the post office at 2641 E. Uintah St. say they found Michael Tessler and Garin Shaw at about 10:30 p.m. with materials used to make meth.

A Colorado Springs Fire Department Hazmat crew was called to the scene. Tessler and Shaw were decontaminated and arrested, police said.

According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, nationwide, there’s been 6,186 meth lab incidents (including seizures of operational labs, chemical or equipment seizures and dumpsites) reported through September of this year. Of those, 1,574 have been in Missouri. That’s 25.4 percent of all meth labs reported in the nation.
In second place behind Missouri’s 1,574 is Indiana with 632.
Statewide through September, Jefferson County near St. Louis has had the most reported meth labs with 192, followed by St. Charles County with 94, then neighboring Greene County with 86.

Jacksonville, FL — A routine traffic stop turns into a bomb squad call out Monday night.  JSO says they pulled over a vehicle and found hazardous materials inside the Dodge Neon, prompting the call. 
"As a result of that, Jax fire and rescue, hazmat team, as well as the JSO bomb squad has responded," Sergeant Amos Gainey with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.
The case is being investigated as a possible meth lab.

ADRIAN, Mich. —
Apartments in a building at the Carriage House Apartments on Sand Creek Highway in Adrian were evacuated late Saturday after firefighters responding to a fire there found a man had been trying to make methamphetamine in his residence, police said.

Officers arrested the man after he tried to drive away with the still-hot meth ingredients stashed in a cooler in his SUV, and a hazardous-materials cleanup crew was called to check the building.

The man was trying to make meth using the “one-pot” method, which involves mixing the drug’s flammable and toxic ingredients in a single container, such as a 2-liter pop bottle, said Detective Lt. Robert Sinclair, commander of the OMNI Team 3 drug enforcement unit. OMNI, which is a multijurisdictional task force made up of officers from the Michigan State Police, the Lenawee County Sheriff’s Department, and the Adrian and Raisin Township police departments, was called after firefighters and Adrian police recognized the situation.

An Albany home engulfed in flames last week was a P lab, according to fire investigators.

Fire crews were called to the Albany Heights Rd home last Monday around 9.30pm, and the police clandestine laboratory team was called in on Friday.

"It appears that there has been some type of explosion from methamphetamine, causing a fire," fire safety investigator Lynda McHugh said.

"The results from the house show it was a large explosion and the fire service did have trouble extinguishing certain areas of the house due to chemicals in the property."

RICHMOND - Richmond Fire Officials say an apartment fire Saturday night has been linked to a methamphetamine lab in the city's Fan district.

Officials say the fire happened around 9:30 p.m. in an apartment building in the 3500 block of Grove Avenue.

When fire crews arrived, they found heavy smoke coming from the rear of the building.

Both the Drug Enforcement Agency and hazmat teams were on scene.

Officials say a man was removed from the building and transported to the hospital with significant burns. They say he was burned when he attempted to put out the fire.

This is the second meth lab fire in Richmond this year. That fire happened on Park Avenue in March.

NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) All lanes have reopened along Highway 17 South after units in North Myrtle Beach discovered a rolling meth lab Wednesday afternoon.

Pat Dowling, spokesman for the City of North Myrtle Beach, said hazmat units were on scene at 2101 Highway 17 South after a traffic stop conducted on a vehicle led investigators to a Gatorade bottle full of chemicals used in the manufacture of crystal meth.

Dowling said the chemicals hadn't been cooked, but had been shaken. Units stabilized the chemicals by adding sand and other ingredients to the bottle. The contents were then disposed of in accordance with EPA and DHEC regulations.

SURREY - A Surrey man was arrested after running away from what police believe was a crystal meth lab that caught fire inside a house in the 14700-block of 79 Avenue on Friday afternoon.

Surrey RCMP Cpl. Drew Grainger said a hazardous materials (Hazmat) team found chemicals typically associated with clandestine drug labs and that they are being analyzed in a lab.

"It certainly did have the earmarks of a crystal methamphetamine operation," he said.

Authorities must take extra precaution while disposing of meth lab components recovered at meth lab scenes due to the dangerous chemicals used to produce the drug.
That’s why anhydrous ammonia, propane and sometimes oxygen tanks are removed from lab sites, stored and then disposed of safely in remote locations.
“Basically each one of these is a lab,” said Franklin County Narcotics Enforcement Unit (FCNEU) Cpl. Scott Briggs as he loaded tanks onto a trailer to be hauled from a shooting range in Union.
The tanks were removed Thursday afternoon from the range that Union police officers use for target practice.
The tanks had been collected from meth labs within the county since August.
Union police officers shot at the tanks Wednesday from distances between 50-100 yards to limit exposure to chemicals, or injury from tanks that could explode.

MARSHALL COUNTY, KY (KFVS) -
The Marshall County Sheriff's Office arrested a man after finding a meth lab in a camper.

The Pennyrile Narcotics Task Force, Marshall County Sheriff's Office, Calvert City Police Department responded to a complaint of drug activity and a stolen camper on Nov. 9.

Officers found Joshua L. Dehaven, 33, of Calvert City hiding in the camper with a strong chemical odor.

Officers found a meth lab in the bathroom with two additional reaction vessels, three smoker bottles, camp fuel, salt, lithium battery casings, coffee filters, pseudoephedrine, lye, liquid fire and the finished product (meth) in the camper.

An illegal drug-making operation in a Santa Rosa home Tuesday evening sparked an explosion that caused a fire, bringing firefighters, then police officers, narcotics investigators and a bomb squad to the residence.

Officers arrested Andrew Rossini, 29, at the Morgan Street home. A second man, Anson Bernard Doucette, 41, was wanted for questioning in the case, reported Sgt. Mike Tosti.

Santa Rosa firefighters went to the house at about 5:30 p.m. for a reported fire.

They found no significant blaze but called police after seeing signs of suspected illegal activity.

A man dumped a duffle bag with a mobile meth lab on the side of River Road off South Dixie Highway on Friday while fleeing from law enforcement officials after a traffic stop, said Kevin Kelshaw, public information officer with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office.

Officials stopped the car because they were looking for a man named Michael Green, who had outstanding warrants in connection with manufacturing methamphetamine, Kelshaw said.

WILMER, Alabama --

Eleven year old twins are telling their dramatic stories of escaping a burning trailer in Wilmer.

Deputies said a meth lab explosion caused the trailer fire.

Everyone got out alive, but four people have been arrested.

You can tell by the pants Bryant Boykin is an Alabama fan.

When asked if he was going to watch the game with LSU, Boykin said, "Yes, I am, and I'm getting some popcorn."

Bryant said his twin sister, Breanna, saved his life.