GLEN BURNIE, Md. — You can still see evidence of an explosion on Wednesday afternoon behind the warehouse in the Curtis Business Center in Glen Burnie.
An employee inside the Goodman Air Conditioning and Heating distribution center, who did not wish to be identified, describes what she heard.
“It was just a very loud ‘boom’, like very loud, and we checked out back and we saw a lot of smoke that looked like it was coming from the roof,” said the employee, “but one of my guys went out back and saw the mess against the wall.”
When fire investigators arrived on the scene, they quickly determined this was no accident.
“Once we determined that there were no injuries and no damage to the structure, we did discover some debris consistent with a destructive device,” said Firefighter/Paramedic Don Clime of the Anne Arundel County Fire Department.
A 20-foot debris field from a device apparently housed inside a bucket, and surveillance video clearly showed a truck backing up to the building moments before the blast that they later tracked down at this home in Pasadena where police arrested 63-year-old Greg Smith without incident.
Inside the home, they say they found more items, which could be used to make such a device.
At the time of the explosion, Smith told investigators the only reason he was at the industrial park was to come to the emissions testing station located there to have his vehicle tested.
While a motive for the bombing remains unknown, investigators say there’s no question Smith was trying to destroy the building.
“The device went off and in close proximity to the building so anytime that’s involved, the building was occupied, so it could have been catastrophic and dangerous to the occupants. Absolutely,” said Clime.
It’s a point not lost upon those who were inside the building at the time.
“Now thinking about it, it’s strange I guess. Unexpected,” the employee told us.
Even though, they too, can’t explain why it was targeted.
“Name is not familiar so I honestly don’t know,” she added.
