CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. – The Macomb County business where a massive fire erupted Monday night is being accused of improperly storing gases that led to a series of explosions and killed a bystander.
A Clinton Township business located near 15 Mile Road and Groesbeck Highway caught fire around 9 p.m. on Monday, March 4. Authorities believe the fire heated up numerous cannisters of gases, causing them to continuously explode as the fire raged on.
The exploding canisters sent shrapnel flying throughout the area, creating a debris field at least a half-mile in distance in each direction, officials said. A 19-year-old bystander was reportedly struck by one of those flying canisters. He was hospitalized and died early Tuesday morning.
Local authorities provided more details about Monday night’s fire and explosions, and the building where they occurred. Here’s what we know as of Tuesday morning.
Business not approved to store gases
The building that caught fire Monday night was shared by a business named Goo and a distribution company named Select Distributors, which police said are both part of the same organization. The business owners are accused of acting outside of what the township approved them for.
Authorities said there was a significant amount of combustible gases inside the building, including canisters of butane, nitrous oxide, and lighter fluid. The business had also just received a truckload of butane within the past week, of which about half of that remained as of Monday night, officials said.
The gases believed to be the source of Monday’s fire and explosions were reportedly stored in a back room at Goo. Authorities said they had no idea the gases were there, and that no such canisters were present at the township’s last inspection in September 2022.
“How did we know that these things were in the back room? We did not,” said Bob Cannon, Clinton Township supervisor. He said the township was told Goo would solely operate as a retail location.
“This is a former Save-A-Lot store, and that’s what we thought was going in, and that’s what we inspected. Never did any of our staff or departments see anything like that,” he added, referring to the gases.
Permits show Goo is a storefront that has a back room for storage and products that are sold on the floor, and that’s what was identified during the 2022 inspection, officials said. Barry Miller, superintendent of the township’s building department, said the business was not approved to store the gases in the quantities they did.
“There are allowable quantities for certain things you can put in those [storage] rooms ... obviously with what happened last night, they were well over what would’ve been allowable for that site,” Miller said Tuesday morning.
“Had we known the containers were in the back room, we would have issued violations immediately and worked to get them out of there through the court system,” Cannon said. “We can’t just walk into somebody’s back room. We do have inspections.”
‘There will be repercussions’
No one had been taken into custody in connection with the fire and explosions as of 11 a.m. Tuesday. Authorities said multiple people were being questioned, and that two business owners were questioned Monday night.
An investigation into the business and their actions is already underway. Township Supervisor Cannon said Tuesday the persons who applied for permits to do something legal “ended up doing something that is clearly not only illegal, but immoral and dangerous.”
“There are going to be repercussions,” Cannon said. “People have done things wrong -- very wrong. We don’t like it and we’re not going to accept it.”
It wasn’t immediately clear what type of repercussions would be faced, or by who. The identities of those being questioned were not provided by authorities Tuesday morning.
Authorities were set to provide another news briefing at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, though it wasn’t known what new information they’d share.
Officials did explicitly say, though, that the massive fire and continuous explosions were connected to the gases stored by Goop.
“Without these tanks, we don’t have this issue,” said Clinton Township fire Chief Tim Duncan. “That’s really the core of it. The explosions, the amount of damage ... obviously with the explosions, the walls that could contain some of this were wiped out early into the fire. So, we didn’t have that protection there [to allow] us to get in and suppress this thing right out of the gate.”
Goo is a smoke shop that sells tobacco, smoking paraphernalia and the like. Officials said Select Distributors provides marijuana-related items and equipment to the local marijuana industry. Selling actual marijuana in Clinton Township is not legal.
Chief Duncan said the businesses are “one and the same.”
“You have Goo, and they have certain products that they probably sell out of there, and then you have the Select Distributors side, which, I believe, is the one that’s supplying the gasses to the local area for what they do with their dispensaries, or they’re selling them the pens or the gasses needed to handle this industry,” Duncan said Tuesday at a news conference.
---> What chief said morning after explosions, fire in Macomb County
Cause of fire still unknown
It was still unclear what caused the fire to start. Fire Chief Duncan said there was an explosion as late as 7:30 a.m. Tuesday. He expected there would be more explosions on Tuesday, though officials hoped they’d be smaller and more contained.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, known as the ATF, was helping with the investigation.
People were urged to avoid the area on Monday, and were asked to continue doing so on Tuesday. Duncan did say, however, he didn’t believe there was a threat to the public as of Tuesday morning.
---> From last night: Here’s everything we know so far about explosions, fire in Macomb County
Officials said the massive fire was contained as of around 11 p.m. Monday. Once the fire was out, the concern shifted to air quality in the area due to the many gases amd explosions at the facility. A hazmat team was expected to investigate the scene on Tuesday.
The fire was extinguished as of Tuesday morning, but smoke still billowed from the facility in the morning. Authorities were monitoring hot spots that could potentially reignite.
Most of the roadways in the area were reopened to traffic on Tuesday.
Have photos or videos of the blaze? Share them with the community through MIPics right here.