Posted on 03/01/2002 5:04:00 AM PST by truthandlife
Federal agents are investigating the possibility that an electrical outage at a Utah Power relay station on the final day of the Winter Games was caused by an explosive device.
State and federal authorities are looking at whether explosives wrapped in railroad spikes hurled shrapnel upward, shattering a circuit breaker. Railroad spikes were found at the substation near Salt Lake City International Airport, but officials have not settled the question of whether the explosion was a result of faulty equipment, vandalism or terrorism, The Salt Lake Tribune has learned.
Material taken from the scene was being analyzed at a federal crime lab Tuesday for explosive residue.
Utah Power spokesman Dave Eskelsen would not comment on whether a bomb had caused the Sunday outage. He said security around the substation, at 4800 W. 700 South, had been beefed up for the Games. He declined to be more specific.
"This is under investigation by the FBI and ATF and we don't want to say anything to compromise their investigation," Eskelsen said Tuesday.
The Olympic Joint Terrorism Task Force, FBI and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are investigating the incident.
The explosion caused a power outage that left 33,000 homes in Salt Lake, Davis and Tooele counties without power for nearly an hour and later sparked a fire at the Tesoro oil refinery in North Salt Lake.
The outage occurred shortly after 10 a.m., eight hours before the Olympics Closing Ceremony at Rice-Eccles Stadium, and officials quickly traced the problem to a circuit breaker failure at the substation.
During the power outage, the airport ran on generators for a time, but flight operations were not affected.
The Tesoro fire broke out when workers attempted to restart equipment following the outage. Officials said a relief valve carried oil-soaked material to a catalytic converter, which converts crude oil into gasoline.
The material ignited when it hit the 1,300-degree converter, officials said. As firefighters battled the blaze, a second fire erupted, sending a thick black plume of smoke skyward that blocked driver visibility on Interstate 15, shutting down the freeway for about a half hour.
A Wisconsin man charged with having stashed deadly cyanide in Chicago's subway system earlier this month is under investigation by the FBI for the bombing of a Utah Power substation on the final day of the 2002 Winter Olympics, The Salt Lake Tribune has learned.
Joseph Konopka, 25, formerly of DePere, Wis., also was charged with committing vandalism on public utilities in Wisconsin in a 1997 crime spree, according to the FBI.
Konopka was arrested in Chicago on March 10 for allegedly storing cyanide in a locked closet of Chicago's mass transit system. He was arrested in a steam tunnel in the basement of the University of Illinois-Chicago Education Building by campus police on a stakeout following a series of burglaries.
Salt Lake City FBI officials on Monday declined to comment on whether Konopka was a suspect in the Feb. 24 explosion at the Utah Power substation at 4800 W. 700 South in Salt Lake City.
Chicago FBI spokeswoman Mary Lynn Muha said agents were probing Konopka's history of vandalism, which includes charges of alleged attacks on utilities, cellular telephone facilities, sewers, power stations and water utility facilities in northeastern Wisconsin.
When asked directly if Konopka was a suspect in Salt Lake City, Muha replied, "We're doing a full investigation, but I can't confirm or deny anything."
In the Chicago case, a 15-year-old boy was detained with Konopka. The juvenile told police and agents about the stash of chemicals in a subway passage, prompting authorities to shut down the Chicago Transit Authority's Blue Line for three hours while they conducted a search.
In what was supposed to be a locked passage, police found a cache of potentially deadly chemicals that included potassium chlorate and cyanide. FBI agents and transit officials have not determined how Konopka may have obtained keys to the doors to the passage.
Konopka remains in federal custody in Chicago without bail, charged with possession of a chemical weapon.
Konopka is also under suspicion for the Utah bombing because his whereabouts were unknown during the Winter Games. Investigators said he jumped bail last June on the Wisconsin vandalism warrants, disappearing until his arrest in Chicago.
In 1997, prosecutors allege, Konopka led a group of teens on a five-county vandalism spree in Wisconsin. Door County District Attorney Tim Funnell in Wisconsin told The Associated Press last week that Konopka's alleged rampage was motivated by his anti-government views.
"He's sort of disillusioned with society in general, disillusioned with the way society works, disillusioned with the way government works," Funnell contended. "This is the way he chose to protest."
On Feb. 24 in Salt Lake City, a "high-level explosive device" investigators believe was wrapped in railroad spikes hurled shrapnel skyward, shattering a circuit breaker. The explosion caused a power outage that left 33,000 homes in Salt Lake, Davis and Tooele counties without power for nearly an hour and later sparked a fire at the Tesoro oil refinery in North Salt Lake.
The outage occurred eight hours before the Olympic Closing Ceremony at Rice-Eccles Stadium, and officials quickly traced the problem to the substation.During the power outage, the airport ran on generators for a time, but flight operations were not affected.
Investigators have not publicly named any suspects in the incident, but say they do not believe it was related to the Olympics or foreign terrorists.
mvigh@sltrib.com
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The FBI on Thursday said an explosion that knocked out power to thousands of people over the weekend was not caused by equipment failure. That left open the possibility of a bomb or other sabotage.
The bureau said in a statement that investigators do not think the explosion at a Utah Power substation was the work of terrorists or was related to the Winter Olympics, which wrapped up Sunday evening.
No injuries were reported. The substation was slightly damaged and all customers had power restored within two hours.
A law enforcement source who earlier spoke on condition of anonymity said railroad spikes found at the scene had caused indentations in metal near the explosion, which led investigators to consider the possibility of a bomb.
The bureau said it was awaiting lab results that could indicate the presence of explosives.
Investigators also found a hole cut in a security fence surrounding the substation where the property may have been entered.
The blast occurred about 10 a.m., eight hours before the start of the Winter Games' closing ceremony.
Organizers and federal and state government agencies spent $310 million to safeguard the 17-day Winter Olympics.
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