Authorities are warning residents of Upper Bucks County not to walk in uncut grass along rural roadsides after the latest in a series of explosions was triggered when a Milford Township public works department employee ran over an explosive device while cutting grass in a right-of-way along Brick Tavern Road near Allentown Road Thursday afternoon, 6ABC Action News reported Friday.
The area is west-northwest of Quakertown.
The employee was uninjured by the explosion, which left behind a crater approximately two feet wide by two-and-a-half inches deep and had a percussion powerful enough to knock over a bookcase inside a home across the street where a woman and her children heard and felt it, the TV news station reported.
The Upper Bucks area has been plagued by more than 30 explosions of unknown origin since early April, but this marks the first time that one directly involved a bystander.
Local police, state police, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms (ATF) are all investigating the explosions, which have also occurred in Springfield Township, Upper Black Eddy and elsewhere. Authorities were at the scene of the latest explosion in Milford Township, which is in close proximity to two explosions that occurred last week.
None of the investigating agencies have yet released a statement about Thursday’s explosion.
Anonymous tips about the explosions may be submitted by calling Lehigh Valley Crime Stoppers at 1-800-426-TIPS or Trooper Jordan Houck of the Pennsylvania State Police’s Dublin barracks at 215-249-9191.
“We are attempting to prevent someone from accidentally getting injured by these explosions, including the individual responsible,” Troop M (Bethlehem) Commanding Officer Capt. Richard H. D’Ambrosio said in a previous news release about the ongoing investigation.
Police say that regardless of how insignificant you think your tip may be, all suspicious activity should be reported to them so the individual or individuals responsible for the explosions are apprehended before someone is injured.
The intersection of Allentown and Brick Tavern Road in Milford Township, Bucks County, looking east on Brick Tavern Road.
