Four teenage boys — two from Livermore Falls and two from Rumford — are charged with setting off six soda bottle bombs and igniting two fires in their respective towns over the weekend, officials said Monday.  

The State Fire Marshal’s Office charged the Livermore Falls boys, ages 14 and 15, with criminal use of explosives. They are accused of making six devices that blew up in the Baldwin, Church, Pleasant, Knapp and Green streets area, Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety said in a statement.

During the investigation, the boys were identified and came to the Livermore Falls Police Station with their parents Sunday for questioning, state investigator Ken MacMaster of the Office of the State Fire Marshall said Monday.

The pair admitted to making the bombs, he said. The contents in the bottles created a chemical reaction that caused them to explode, MacMaster said. No one was hurt and no property was damaged but the potential was there, because they added BB’s, he said.

On Saturday, Livermore Falls police officer Steve Wilkinson responded to a report of suspicious conditions on Baldwin Street at 9:40 a.m., Livermore Falls police Chief Ernest Steward Jr. said Monday.

Wilkinson found what appeared to be an exploded bottle bomb on the ground in the parking lot of the former Primary School, Steward said. Wilkinson contacted the Office of the State Fire Marshal and MacMaster responded at about 11:30 a.m.

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Another exploded soda bottle bomb was found at about 4 p.m. near J.P.’s Corner Store at the intersection of Baldwin, Pleasant and Church streets.

At 9:30 a.m. Sunday, two more soda bombs were found near the Eaton Memorial United Methodist Church at Knapp and Church streets, Steward said. MacMaster said two more were found exploded on Green Street near Rite Aid.

The case will go to the juvenile justice community officer and then the District Attorney’s Office to determine if the case will move forward with the charges, he said.

Also Sunday, two 15-year-olds from Rumford were charged with arson after two fires were set at the Hammond Lumber yard at 80 Prospect St., McCausland said. Firefighters extinguished them and there was little damage, he said.

A spokesman for the Rumford Police Department said Monday that the two entered the building and set fire to debris inside. He said no structural damage occurred.

They were charged with criminal trespass and criminal mischief by the Rumford Police Department. The two were released to the custody of their parents and are scheduled to appear in Rumford District Court on May 8.

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 The Rumford Fire Department extinguished the fire within a short time.

The State Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating three other arson cases that occurred over the weekend. In Vassalboro, a 17-year-old boy is charged with arson after a 1988 motor home parked at Hemphills Farm on Oak Grove Road was set ablaze Friday, McCausland said.

In Boothbay Harbor, a house under construction on Middle Road was heavily damaged by fire Sunday. Investigators said it was set, he said.

And in Milo, a farmhouse on Highland Avenue was heavily damaged Saturday from a fire set in the basement, McCausland said.

dperry@sunjournal.com


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