An illegal methamphetamine lab was blamed Tuesday for a fire that damaged a Northside house and injured two people suspected of making the drug.

        Authorities say the fire is the byproduct of a dangerous drug-making business that has spread rapidly throughout Greater Cincinnati in the past two years.

A drug agent looks for evidence at a fire Tuesday that authorities said started in an illegal drug lab. (Glenn Hartong photo) | ZOOM |

        The 16-county area around Cincinnati led the state last year with 65 federal meth lab investigations, up from just five in 2000.

        Numbers for this year are unavailable, but investigators say they are ahead of last year's pace.

        “We're seeing more and more of this,” said Richard Cerniglia, agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Cincinnati office. “It's been coming for a long time, and now it's here.

        “It was inevitable.”

        He said the fire Tuesday morning at the two-family house at 4250 Virginia Ave. shows how dangerous the small, mom-and-pop meth labs can be.

        The fire broke out around 5:30 a.m. and quickly gutted a second-floor kitchen. Police say two men ran out of the apartment, alerted their neighbors downstairs and then fled the scene.

        The neighbors told police that the men, who still had not been identified or found late Tuesday, were injured in the fire. No damage estimate has been set.

        Fire officials notified the DEA as soon as they found the toxic mix of chemicals that is the hallmark of meth labs. Many of the chemicals are drawn from household products, such as cleaning fluid, cold medicine, batteries and table salt.

        The drug can be mixed in a myriad of ways, but a popular ingredient in the Cincinnati area is anhydrous ammonia, a powerful, unstable chemical found in farm fertilizer.

        “The chemicals are hazardous,” said Capt. Dan Rottmueller, an investigator for the Cincinnati Fire Department. “You think it's just your normal house fire, and then you realize you've got a meth lab.”

        Because the chemicals are so toxic, fire and DEA investigators will treat the Northside fire scene the same as a hazardous-waste site.

        “These things are a danger to the community,” Agent Cerniglia said.

        Methamphetamine, sometimes called “the poor man's cocaine,” is an addictive stimulant that produces a high that can last for several hours. Meth, which sells for as much as $1,200 an ounce, can be smoked, injected, snorted or eaten.

        Although illegal meth has been available here since the 1980s, local dealers and users only recently began producing the drug themselves.

        The crude, in-home labs have become more popular as users and dealers have learned the basic chemistry needed to mix and “cook” their own supply.

        “For a hundred bucks, you can go into the meth business,” Agent Cerniglia said.

        But the risks are high. The chemicals can explode or ignite when mixed improperly. The danger grows when those making the drug also use it, sometimes becoming delusional or paranoid.

        One person died two years ago when a meth lab exploded in Highland County, east of Cincinnati.

        Local drug enforcement officers say many of the labs in Greater Cincinnati are so small they could be used to produce enough drugs for only a few people.

        “A lab can be anything now,” said Steve Barnett, spokesman for Hamilton County Sheriff Simon Leis. “It can be your car, your kitchen, your backpack, a garbage can.”

        Regardless of their size, the labs always are high-risk operations. If something goes wrong, as authorities believe it did Tuesday in Northside, people can be injured or killed.

        But despite the risk, meth labs remain popular with those determined to use or sell the drug.

        “It's highly addictive,” Mr. Cerniglia said. “Once methamphetamine gets a grip on you, it's a powerful grip.”
       

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