Police believe a lit cigarette may have caused an explosion in a car that led investigators to bomb-making materials at a Norwell residence. At the home, they set off an early-morning controlled detonation that rattled residents of the affluent South Shore suburb.

Law enforcement and emergency personnel responded to a motor vehicle explosion in Quincy at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, according to Jennifer Mieth, a spokeswoman for the state fire marshal.

The driver, 36-year-old Joseph Brennan, of Norwell, suffered injuries in the blast, and was initially transported to South Shore Hospital, according to police.

“It appears that the suspect may have lit a cigarette in the car, and that this caused bomb-making materials in the vehicle to explode,’’ Quincy police captain John Dougan told Boston.com.


Brennan was arraigned from his hospital bed on Monday afternoon on a charge of possession of an infernal device, according to a statement from the Norfolk County District Attorney’s office.

After the explosion in Quincy, investigators went to the suspect’s Prospect Street home in Norwell, where they found what police identified as additional bomb-making materials.

The controlled detonation took place at approximately 7:45 a.m. Sunday morning.

A video posted to Brennan’s Facebook account on March 2 showed what he indicated to be rocket propellant being used to melt snow.

When people say it's not rocket science I get disappointed here's a variation of solid rocket propellant used in the retired space shuttles solid rocket boosters I think I'm in the wrong profession Posted by Joseph Thomas Brennan Jr. on Monday, March 2, 2015

Norwell Police plan to charge Brennan with three counts of possession of a destructive device and one count of posession of component parts capable of making a destructive device.

The FBI assisted Quincy and Norwell police by sending bomb technicians and investigators, according to a spokeswoman.

Members of the Massachusetts State Police Fire and Explosions Unit also assisted in the response, according to Trooper Reid Bagley.

This isn’t the first time explosives have been found in Norwell.

In January 2014, a Norwell teen was charged after police “found a small stockpile of handmade explosive devices in a shed’’ behind his parent’s home, according to a report from The Patriot Ledger.


In May 2013, police “recovered more than 230 explosive devices from a shed in Norwell after a man admitted to stockpiling the devices there and detonating two of them,’’ according to The Boston Globe.

Calls to Brennan’s home went unanswered Monday.