A 45-year-old man was burned on his hands, arms and face Sunday in Sherman in what investigators believe was a methamphetamine laboratory explosion.

Todd Budick was treated by rescue workers at the scene of the fire on Sunday on Gallison Road in the Aroostook County town, where a meth lab inside a shed caught fire, according to Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety.

“Sunday’s fire was discovered by an off-duty firefighter who drove by the property on Gallison Road and saw that Budick’s clothes were on fire,” McCausland said in a news release.

Budick left the property after being treated.

Fire investigators from the State Fire Marshal’s Office returned to the property Monday with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency’s lab team, which is cleaning up the meth lab remnants inside the shed.

Sunday’s blaze was the second fire on Budick’s property. Two weeks ago, his house burned to the ground, McCausland said.

“Fire investigators suspected that methamphetamine may have played a role in the fire, but the cause could not be determined because of the damage,” McCausland said. “The making of methamphetamine is highly flammable and explosive.”

Law enforcement agencies have been called in to 23 meth-related incidents so far this year.

 


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