TWO MEN DIE AFTER METH LAB BLAST

Survivor Calls 911 Three Days After Explosion

BULLS GAP, Tenn. -- At least two men died over the weekend, and a third was
critically injured after a makeshift methamphetamine lab exploded in a
mobile home, authorities said Monday.

Apparently the explosion happened Friday evening but wasn't reported until
10 a.m. Monday when the only surviving victim called E-911 because he was
having problems breathing, according to police accounts.

One body was recovered from the trailer, and police were searching the area
for the body of a second man who was reportedly killed in the explosion and
later buried by one of his accomplices.

"One guy dies in the explosion, and one guy disposes of the body,"
explained Hawkins County Sheriff Wayne Clevinger. "He then comes back to
the mobile home, but he's really coming back to his own tomb due to the
toxic chemicals."

After their accomplice was buried, the two men apparently spent the rest of
the weekend in the chemical-drenched mobile home, and "sometime between
Friday night and Monday morning" one of them died, while the other grew
deathly ill, Clevinger said.

None of the men had been positively identified as of Monday evening.

The surviving victim was flown to Holston Valley Hospital in Kingsport,
where he was listed in critical condition. Clevinger said he was unsure as
to the extent of the man's injuries but added that he had apparently
suffered severe burns to the inside of his throat, lungs and esophagus.

Authorities theorized that the men didn't call for help because of the
illegal nature of their enterprise.

"I don't know what gets into peoples' minds," the sheriff said.

Attempts to piece together exactly what happened over the weekend were
hampered because of concerns over the chemicals that were released in the
explosion, officials said.

"We don't know what's in there and we won't know until we actually go into
the premises," said Hawkins County Emergency Management Director Tony
Armstrong. "No one is allowed in there right now."

Nine sheriff's deputies and emergency workers had to undergo
decontamination procedures after pulling the sole survivor from the
trailer, Armstrong said, including four deputies who were later examined at
an area hospital.

After the initial criminal investigation is complete, the site will be
decontaminated by workers hired from a hazardous material cleanup company
in the Tri-Cities area, officials said.

"That takes a lot of money," said Clevinger.

Officials said they didn't believe the chemicals posed a danger to the
neighborhood, which consists mainly of farms and secluded homesteads tucked
off Lawson Road.

According to police accounts, an ambulance was dispatched to the trailer at
328 Lawson Road about 10:02 a.m. after a male subject called E-911 to
complain of breathing problems, Clevinger said. When the ambulance crew
arrived a little more than 20 minutes later, they called for assistance
from the sheriff's department.

One man's corpse was found in the bathroom, the apparent victim of a
combination of burns and prolonged exposure to toxic fumes. The surviving
victim told them that a second body was buried somewhere nearby and accused
the man who was found dead in the bathroom of disposing of the corpse after
Friday's blast.

The man's injuries were too severe, however, for him to provide a more
detailed account of the incident or to identify his accomplices, the
sheriff explained.

Neighbors didn't report hearing an explosion, and most of them were unaware
that a methamphetamine lab had blown up until they learned of the incident
from media reports.

"We didn't know," said Vivian Everhart, who lives within 100 yards of the
trailer's driveway. "We thought maybe someone had been shot."

Everhart described the men who lived in the trailer as "quiet boys" but
went on to say that they had a lot of visitors, which was unusual in such a
rural area.

"All we know is there was a lot of traffic, but they never bothered us with
noise," she said. "I didn't even know their names."

According to Clevinger, Hawkins County is no different than many other
communities in northeastern Tennessee that have been swamped with
clandestine methamphetamine labs.

"We're just like everybody else," he said. "They've just seemed to be
popping up here and there over the past year or two."

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration are assisting in the cleanup and investigation, Clevinger said.