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Chemicals thrown in trash caused garbage truck explosion in Bloomfield Township neighborhood, fire chief says

Chemicals believed to have been used to make fireworks

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. – A GFL Environmental truck exploded while it was picking up trash at a home in Bloomfield Township.

“The biggest thing with chemicals is when you mix them, you never know what’s going to happen,” said Bloomfield Township Fire Chief John LeRoy. “That’s unfortunately what happened today when multiple chemicals are mixed together. We had some sort of a reaction that nearly injured two firefighters.”

A homeowner had conducted a deep clean and unknowingly dumped all her teenage son’s chemicals that he used to make fireworks. Once the mix was put into the garbage truck, it exploded and trash flew everywhere.

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The Bloomfield Township Fire Department quarantined the truck in the Seaholm High School parking lot until they could figure out what was the chemical mix.

GFL said since COVID, the company has been picking up a lot more trash.

“There are things that are acceptable to throw out and then there are things that need to wait for hazardous waste disposal day,” said Joseph Munem with GFL. “Fireworks are certainly on that list along with batteries, solvents, and gasoline. None of that stuff should be thrown out.”

View more: Oakland County news


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