Claremont police Thursday announced the seizure of 1,610 marijuana plants with an estimated street sale value of more than $1 million that were being grown illegally in a rented home damaged in an electrical fire.
The fire was reported about 4:20 p.m. Wednesday in the 4100 block of New Hampshire Avenue, according to the Claremont Police Department.
“When (firefighters) arrived, they discovered that there was an attic fire within the home, and a large marijuana grow,” according to a police statement.
The fire was quickly extinguished, and police were notified. They obtained a search warrant and “found every room of the home filled with marijuana plants and removed 1,610 marijuana plants of various stages of growth,” according to police.
“The extreme measures used to illegally grow the marijuana endangered the neighborhood. The fire was most likely caused by the unpermitted electrical wiring,” according to the police statement. “The home was filled with jerry-rigged wiring used to power special lighting and air filtration systems, including wiring that bypassed the electrical meter and circuit breakers.”
The electricity to the residence was disconnected to eliminate the hazard for the public, and the city’s building inspector red-tagged the building as unsafe to occupy.
No arrests were reported.
“The rental property, (which) was rented out as a fully furnished home, was seriously damaged by the black market marijuana grow,” police said. “The investigation remains active in an attempt to determine who was responsible for the grow.”