March 1 is the 40th anniversary of the massive explosion and fire at the Sponge Rubber Products plant in downtown Shelton.
The fire destroyed the plant, which was almost three blocks long. About 4,000 people lost their jobs.
The plant was formerly owned by B.F. Goodrich and had just been sold to Charles Moeller of Ohio.
Initial reports hinted at domestic terrorism. From an Associated Press article dated March 3, 1975:
“A masked trio vowing to ‘wipe out the building’ abducted three security guards at a rubber manufacturing plant an hour before the 2 1/2 block structure was rocked by a series of explosions and gutted by fire.”
“Guard Roy Ranno, 44, of Ansonia quoted one of his abductors as saying ‘We’re fed up with the shape of this country. We’re going to wipe out the building.’”
According to an account by lawyer Willie Dow, “fifty-gallon drums of gasoline had been placed throughout the plant, linked together with primacord and detonated.”
Dow sarcastically noted how thoughtful it was of the “kidnappers” to drop the guards off “deep in the woods of a neighboring town before the fuse was lit.”
The FBI investigated and determined the fire was intentionally set in an attempt to cash in on an insurance policy valued at more than $60 million.
Ten people — including the plant’s owner, “his allegedly clairvoyant spiritual adviser and eight other men” faced arson and conspiracy charges, according to The New York Times.
The owner — Charles Moeller — was acquitted, but never collected on the policy. The psychic and the rest of team were convicted. In 1990, the Times did a profile of the forensic auditors who helped investigate the case.
Moeller died in 2013. He was 85.
In January 2006, “Shelton Life” published a special edition, “The Rebirth of Downtown Shelton: Our Journey from Devastation to Revival.”
The magazine included eyewitness accounts.
“The greatest fear was that the fire would consume the entire downtown,” the article states.
(Editor’s note: A version of this article was first published on March 1, 2010)
