Cables dug up, still no cause of beach explosion
By News Staff
Reporting by Melissa Randall
Three days later and investigators are still not sure what triggered the explosion at Salty Brine State Beach on Saturday.
The U.S. Coast Guard is back out at the Narragansett Beach where investigators dug up two underground cables discovered in the area of the blast that injured a Connecticut woman.
"The U.S. Coast Guard owns the cables that were de-energized in 2007 when they switched their navigational aids here to solar,” says Department of Environmental Management Director, Janet Coit.
Orange flags dot the sand, marking the buried line where crews spent hours digging the cables out starting Monday, continuing with heavy machinery on Tuesday.
"We know this a dead end because it's a dead cable. There is absolutely no connectivity to it,” said Larry Mouradjian, the Associate Director for Natural Resources.
Multiple local, state, and federal agencies are working together to figure out the course of the mystery blast, crossing off one theory off the list at a time.
“Until we find a cause we really can't rule anything out,” said Rhode Island State Police Lt. Colonel, Todd Catlow.
“The reality is I've never heard of such a mysterious kind of incident,” Mouradjian continued.
One thing authorities agree on is that it’s okay for the public to be at Salty Brine, “"We've keeping the beach open. We have no new information that would cause us to think that the beach was unsafe,” said Coit.
While plenty of people are still flocking to the beach as it remains open, the area where the cable dug up is still closed off while crews work remove it completely.
© WLNE-TV 2015
