WINDHAM — The man who was hauling a trailerload of propane tanks through Windham today has been charged with possession of stolen material.
Joshua Prokey, of Westbrook, was also in flagrant violation of laws regulating the transport of hazardous materials, said Trooper Charles Granger, a member of the state police commercial vehicle enforcement unit.
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“You name it, he violated it,” Granger said. “It’s not safe at all. That’s why we have regulations and why we have companies haul hazardous materials, not people.”
Granger said Prokey did not have the required licenses, nor did he display the required placards identifying the materials he was hauling, among other violations.
A Windham police officer first pulled over Prokey, who was driving a van towing a trailer loaded with propane tanks welded together, at 9:40 a.m.
Because the circumstances and the cargo were highly unusual, Windham police summoned the state police, Windham and Gorham fire departments and the Presumpscot Valley Hazardous Materials unit to the scene.
The Cumberland County Emergency Management Agency developed a response plan that included a model of where fumes would spread if the propane tanks started to leak.
Emergency personnel at the scene asked area residents to stay in their homes until the situation was declared safe, according to Windham Deputy Fire Chief Dave Nichols.
“When we pull into something like this, the first thing that comes to mind is WMD (weapons of mass destruction),” Nichols said. “We have to think of the worst and have all our safeguards and precautions in place.”
Prokey, who was apparently planning to use the tanks as part of a homemande pontoon boat, was cooperative, police said.
In addition to the tanks on the trailer, Prokey also had a propane tank inside the van, which he had modified to run on propane.
Deptuy Windham Fire Chief John Wescott said firefighters had to approach the situation with caution because each cylinder still contained some propane.
The tanks were loaded with a boom truck onto a flatbed trailer and hauled to a location that police would not identify for security reasons.
There, the remaining propane was to be burned off under the supervision of a Downeast Energy safety team.
Authorities planned to reopen River Road by mid-afternoon.
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