DAILY UPDATES CUSTOMERS WOULD LIKE TO KNOW
DATE INFORMATION
COMMONWEALTH FIREARMS AND TRAINING CENTER, Ltd.,
and
SOMERSET TOURS AND TRAVEL, Ltd.
04/09/2017 Store fire lasted for over 10 hours roof collapsed. Fire, according to fire officials,
began in the rear of the second floor. Fire consumed all fixtures, inventory and and equipment. All items of both the sporting goods store and travel agency were lost.
04/10/2017 Site was investigated by ATF and Fire Department. 92 firearms were recovered in various condition. The firearms were sent to the Somerset Police Department for safe keepting.
04/11/2017 Site was sealed by the environmental officials waiting for an asbestos certificate to continue removing site debris and searching for salvageable items.
04/12/2017 Commonwealth Firearms and Somerset Tours ported their phone numbers to working numbers. Web sites have changed to accommodate customers / client. Established mail forwarding to Post Office Box to begin on 04/17/2017
04/12/2017 Both businesses are seeking alternate space. Somerset Tours had a temporary office BY APPOINTMENT ONLY on the G.A.R. Highway in Swansea, MA - For appointment call the travel agency at 774-365-4288. Commonwealth Firearms has its store number working 774-294-5445.
We can receive and send fax and emails. Call for instructions.
04/13/2017 Received several calls and letter from customers and working with investigators. Conveyed firearm for Customer who had received it from UPS by accident.
04/14/2017 - 04/17/2017 GOOD FRIDAY, PASSOVER AND EASTER - RECEIVED NOTICES FROM CUSTOMERS NO WORK HOWEVER.
04/18/2017 Retrieved mail and Notices from clients and companies are working on refunds, returns, and other issues. Responded via phone and Emails to all clients who called Somerset Tours established new communicaiton system
04/19/2017 Commonwealth Firearms contacted Somerset Police and learned that the team of investigators ATF and STATE are working on the recovered firearms to identify the Serial Numbers and identify them. THIS PROCESS WILL TAKE SEVERAL WEEKS, DO NOT CALL SOMERSET POLICE DEPARTMENT - THEY CAN NOT HELP WITH ANY INFORMATION CALL US -or- Email US AT THE ABOVE NUMBERS, WE CAN GIVE YOU THE LATEST
04/20/2017 Commonwealth Firearms and Somerset Tours responded to site with insurance persons.
04/21/2017 - 04/24/2017 Still waiting for the Hazmet Certificate(s) - Asbestos Certificate(s) to be issued so our team can go on site and recover items that we need and want. Also, customers who contacted us have been notified that we received their documents and have ordered or addressed their issues. We also received calls regarding transfers and other questions, so we have decided to allow anyone to use our link page. We added the CFTF link to this web site. You will need a user name and password. Username: CFTC (all caps) and Password is NEWLTC (again all caps). Go back to the home page and you will see the CUSTOMER'S HELP LINK.
04/24/2017 Notified that site is closed while Hazmet (Asbestos) Company remediates the site. The site was contaminated with asbestos. Upon responding, the fence that encloses the site is covered by plastic boundry barriers preventing contaminated debris to enter the surrounding enviroment. Some of the building has been removed so that the hazmet workers can remove all the asbestos roof shingles and asbestos floor tiles. Some of the Travel Agency's files were recovered. The Sporting Goods side of the building will not be reached by the excavator until the end of this week, so potential recovery of items that survived will have to wait.
04/25/2017 - 02/28/2017 Site remediation continues. Some more firearms were recovered and turned over to the Somerset Police Department. Again DO NOT CALL THE SOMEERSET P.D. they can not help in the recovery process, all information will come through us. We will keep you informed. Some other items were recovered and turned over after decontamination. When we obtain the S/N, Make and Model of the guns retrieved we will post them and privately notify the consignors.
04/29/2017 Site has been shut down by insurance company, citing among other things OSHA problems, MA EPA, complaint made by a citizen that remediation is not proceeding according to asbestos mediation standards and liability exposure should anyone, including yours truly, get hurt while on the site looking for our personal property.
05/1/17 Contacted ATF, OSHA and MA EPA regarding recovery of perosnal property and access to the site.
05/2/17 OSHA called back, no problem with them. MA EPA was contacted. MA EPA called back and stated that asbestos remediation would be completed tomorrow May 3, 2017.
05/3/17 Kate and I responded and were told we still could not get on site, per order of insurance company. We called insurnace company and was allowed to enter site with insurance representative at 3:00 PM. Unon inspection, all firearms were gone, all books gone, the desks and display cases gone, in fact all of what once was the sporting good store had been removed. All that remains is the rear wall, part of the gun vault and part of the upper level rear.
05/04/2017 ATF Emailed and stated that Wed May 10, 2017 they would meet with us at the Somerset Police Department at 10:30 AM to review recovered firearms and their disposition. At that time we will know what was saved, destroyed or still missing. A complete inventory will be available as soon as we can post same. Investigation as to cause and origin is ongoing.
05/5/2017 through 5/18/2017 ATF met with us at the Someset Police Department. The inventory contains Serial Numbers which we do not want to list, however, there were 53 Handguns, 43 Magazines, 18 Barrels with receivers, 14 Shotguns, 20 rifles and assorted Ammunition. Aprroximately 40% of the handguns survived but have water damage. All long guns are virtually for parts only. All the firearms were purchased by Bill Bachant of Bachant's Gun Shop of Lakeville, MA and his web page is www.bachantsgunshop.com The guns have been conveyed by us to Bill via the Somerset Police Department. The building did not yield any other items, including but not limited to holsters, cleaning supplies, optics, carrying cases, etc. Excavation has been completed. The insurance companies are working on the loss. We will continue to keep all up to date on the progress.
5/19/2017 - 5/31/2017 The building is completely raised. Kathleen is preparing for teaching MA LTC class on or after July 1, 2017, location will be announced on the HOME PAGE not here.
The NRA classes are still on hold for a short period of time until some unrelated matters are resolved. The insurance companies are still working on the issue(s) and to date we have received no funds from any company. We hope these updates were helpful in understanding what was going on. In as much as the fire portion and customer information is completed this section is now at an end.
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Copyright 2013 - 2024, Edwin T.Scallon for New Commonwealth Firearms Training Center, Ltd.,. All rights reserved.
