Massive fire, explosion sends debris into air; 1 killed, 1 hurt

CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A person has been killed in a fire and explosion at an industrial building in Michigan.

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Building housed supplies for vaping industry

Update 1:53 p.m. EST March 5: The company where Monday night’s explosion occurred sold supplies for the vaping industry, The Associated Press reported.

The building held a distributor named Goo which had more than 100,000 vape pens. Clinton Township Fire Chief Tim Duncan said Goo had received a truckload of butane canisters the past week and more than half were still on the property at the time of the fire.

Duncan said Goo is also known as Select Distributors. The Clinton Township Building Department said that Goo had received an occupancy permit in September 2022 as a retail location for a “smoke shop/vape store,” the AP reported. Local zoning allowed for retail, not warehousing or distribution, as Goo had requested.

“Until police and fire perform their investigations we really won’t know the answers,” said Barry Miller, the department’s superintendent. “They have to find how much product was there, what was there. There’s a lot they’ll have to look into.”

Original report: The fire started at a building that held novelties, phone accessories and other items for distribution at discount stores in Clinton Township, The Associated Press reported.

One person was killed, a 19-year-old bystander who was hit by flying debris about a quarter-mile from the fire, according to The Detroit News. A second person, a firefighter, was injured battling the fire.

Some canisters exploded because of the fire, causing damage to a police department vehicle and a fire department vehicle.

First responders said they saw “exploding materials flying in all directions from the building” that housed Select Distributors.

“We can not stress enough the danger that is happening right now,” officers posted to Facebook. “Please, please, please stay inside and out of the vicinity. Debris is being projected into the air and coming down as far as a mile away from the explosion.

Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel told WDIV that “some type of CO2 or propane explosions were taking place at the facility, and again, it was just continuous explosions, as well as the fire.”

A fence at a home about a quarter mile from the fire was hit by a metal canister, breaking it, the television station reported.

In addition to the flames and the tanks exploding, first responders were concerned about the air quality as they battled the blaze.

“Their concern right now is — obviously they’re taming that fire, but now, what’s going on with that air quality?” Hackle said according to the AP. “We have a HAZMAT unit that’s out trying to test the air quality so we can get further updates.”

The fire department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating.

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