HATFIELD — The body found on fire Saturday night in Hatfield was an adult man, the Northwestern district attorney’s office announced Monday.
Authorities provided no other information about the incident, which remains under investigation, according to the district attorney’s office.
Hatfield Police were called around 9:30 p.m. for a reported fire off Bridge Lane, Hatfield Police Chief Mike Dekoschak said Sunday. The street turns into a dirt road leading up to the dike bordering the Connecticut River.
When officers arrived, they found a human body on fire, Mary Carey of the Northwestern district attorney’s office said.
The medical examiner’s office will determine the cause of death. The Hatfield Fire Department, State Police detectives unit and state fire marshal’s office responded to the call.
Early Monday afternoon, there was little sign anything had occurred on the farm fields. One resident was walking her dog and another was jogging along the dike.
No obvious signs of fire could be seen in the fields near Bridge Lane, some of which are still covered in snow. Residents who answered their doors in the homes around Bridge Lane either declined to talk or said they were not home at the time of the incident. A police car was seen in the area of Bridge Lane and South Street during that time.
Hatfield native Ted Kabat stopped by the field to look around for himself.
“What the heck is going on, you say to yourself,” Kabat said.
Kabat described the town as a place where houses are left unlocked and tractors are left in fields with the keys in their ignitions. That reality, though, has changed, he said.
At the Hatfield Center Store, employee Kristan Moyna said many customers were asking about the incident. Moyna moved to Hatfield about a month go from New York and has only been working at the store for four days. The weekend’s incident has not changed her opinion of the town she chose to call home.
“I was a little surprised,” she said. “But no, I love it here. It’s a great town.”
Chairman of the Hatfield Select Board Brian Moriarty said he hasn’t received calls from concerned residents about the incident. Living and working on Maple Street, Moriarty said he also hasn’t noticed any change in pedestrian traffic — people are still out walking their dogs and children. Moriarty said he believes it was an isolated incident.
“Maybe people are taking extra caution on their own,” Moriarty said. “There is nothing out of the ordinary other than the incident itself from what I can tell.”