The Trenton Fire Department said it is not yet for sure what is causing unexplained booming noises at night in the Trenton area.

“To put it bluntly, we do not know what is causing them – and neither does anybody else,” the department said Monday on Facebook. “This also does not appear to be a local phenomena- these sounds have been reported in different areas of the US for a while now.”

Fire Chief Rick Morris said the noises started about three weeks ago.

“They’re bigger than an M-80 that’s fore sure. They’re more like an M-100 or an M-500,” Morris said. “We’re trying to triangulate it down and we think that we’re close then all of a sudden they appear to come from another direction too.  So it’s mobile like somebody’s driving around or someone is moving around.”

Morris speculates that the noises are due to illegal fireworks.

“It’s a ground burst it’s not up in the air,” Morris said. “If we have some illegal fireworks out there we want to confiscate them and stop this because somebody could hurt themselves or hurt somebody else.”

At this point Morris said he has not yet even found a residue of the blast or any leftover markings on the ground.

“I’ve been suspicious it might be what they call a sparkler bomb,” Morris said. “The thing is usually there’s debris leftover from that like wire and stuff but we haven’t even found that.”

He said the loud noises are happening randomly and all over town.

“The first ones seemed to appear in the northern part of the city and then we had one over in the extreme eastern side,” Morris said. “I go out at night whenever I hear them and drive around and I’m suspicious of any cars that are leaving the area quickly but we’re not finding any location.”

The department said on Facebook that it’s just as curious as the public to the explanation of the sounds and they plan to post any information that becomes available.