Officials: Cause of "Explosion" at Beach Unknown

State Department of Environmental Management officials said they’re continuing to investigate an incident at Salty Brine State Beach in Narragansett today during which a woman reportedly was thrown into the air after explosion noises.

DEM Spokeswoman Ranya Maguire said that the woman, 50, was transported to South County Hospital after she became trapped on the rocks.

Witnesses described hearing a loud boom noise and seeing the woman get launched from her beach chair into the air.

Others reported smelling chemicals, like sulfur, but oddly, there was no smoke or other indications of an explosion.

Officials evacuated the beach and have been sifting through the sand near the jetty by where the woman was sitting too look for evidence.

Larry Mouradijan, DEM’s associate director for natural resources, said that officials are not looking for any suspects and an earlier report of a man carrying red bags near the area before the reported explosion noise turned out to just be dumping sea shells.

Still, Mouradijan said “there was definitely a ground disturbance there.”

At a 4 p.m. press conference, Mouradijan said that there is no indication the incident was “man made” and the beach is expected to reopen tomorrow.

He added that there is no evidence that today’s incident is related to the string of fires that destroyed three boats in Galilee yesterday.

The state bomb squad responded to the scene at around 11:30 a.m. The first reports came in to Narragansett police at 11:15 a.m.

Image via Twitter, used with permission