SOUTH SIDE Police arrest 2, seize fireworks after raid on store in garage

The fireworks-filled garage posed a danger to neighbors, investigators said.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Two city men were arrested on fireworks charges Friday afternoon as police and fire investigators confiscated more than 100 boxes of fireworks from a wooden garage behind a South Side house.
Arrested in a raid at 315 Potomac Ave. were Roy Oliver, 36, of that address, and Robert G. Musch, no age available, of East Judson Avenue. They are charged with illegal possession, sale and use of fireworks and underage fireworks sales, both misdemeanors, and with the felony charge of possession of a dangerous ordnance.
"We found fireworks being sold. We made a couple of buys with undercover agents," said Alvin Ware, chief investigator for the city fire department. The undercover buys were made Thursday and Friday, he said.
"We also had another big problem with the storage. We've got a lot of fireworks. If we had a fire here, we'd run into some big problems. It's illegal to store them this way," he added. "The fire danger was a big thing for all these people here," he said of the residential neighborhood.
The scene
"When we came in today, there were people in here buying them," including juveniles, Ware said at the scene of the raid. The arrest report also said juveniles were observed buying fireworks at the garage during Thursday's undercover buy.
The investigation was triggered by a tip from an informant two weeks ago, Ware said. Participating in the raid were the state fire marshal's office, city fire department investigators and city police. An agent of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was present during Thursday's undercover buy, an arrest report said.
The misdemeanor charges pertain to sale of consumer fireworks, which can be legally purchased from authorized dealers in Ohio by anyone over age 18, but must be taken out of state within 72 hours. The felony charge pertains to possession of professional grade fireworks, which can be bought legally only by those with a federal pyrotechnics license. The arrestees don't have such licenses, Sharp said.
"The reason we raided this place is that they were having illegal sales here," said Bob Sharp, assistant chief of the state fire marshal's office for northeast Ohio. The confiscated fireworks were to be detonated next week by the city police bomb squad, Sharp said.
"It poses first and foremost a risk to the firefighters. We have close proximity to the other houses. It'll accelerate a fire and the projectiles will go all over the place," Sharp said of the danger if there had been a fire.
Showroom
Sales were being made from the garage, which was set up as a showroom, Sharp said.
Sharp estimated the value of the fireworks, which included bottle rockets and firecrackers, at more than $5,000.
Some $4,750 in cash was confiscated in the raid, according to Lt. Kevin Johnson of the city fire department.