Fiery explosion at vape supply building kills man at car wash, Michigan officials say

A man is dead and a firefighter is injured after a building packed with vape pens and supplies caught fire in Michigan, sending dangerous debris flying in all directions while explosions were felt for miles, officials said.

Firefighters responded to a call for a fire at Select Distributors, a business in Clinton Township, at about 8:50 p.m. on Monday, March 4 — but as they made their way to the scene, they quickly realized this was something more dangerous than a typical structure fire, community officials said at a March 5 news briefing streamed by WLUC.

Even a mile or two from the building, they could feel the earth shaking while they rode in their trucks toward the source of the continuous explosions, Clinton Township Fire Chief Tim Duncan said.

“What are we getting ourselves into?” Duncan said, recalling those early moments.

Inside the facility were 100,000 vape pens, each with a lithium battery, plus a currently unknown number of canisters filled with nitrous oxide and butane, officials said. According to officials, there were also knives and other novelty weapons stored there.

When the building went up in flames, explosions sent those knives and gas canisters and other debris shooting out with enough force to create a debris field a half-mile away “in every direction,” Duncan said.

An unlucky 19-year-old bystander was at a carwash a quarter-mile from the scene when a piece of debris hit him in the head, officials said. He was taken to a hospital but later died.

A firefighter was also wounded when shrapnel went through a windshield and struck them in the face, according to officials.

The fire has been extinguished, but officials say the community is still littered with potentially dangerous materials and are urging residents to stay away from anything that may have come from the supply site.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, as are the owners of the businesses operating out of the building, officials said. The amount and type of materials stored there was not allowed by code and officials said “there are going to be repercussions.”

“Both the Clinton Township Police Department and Clinton Township Fire Department requested the aid of local police and fire agencies in addition to requesting the assistance of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives citing the fact that the business operated as a novelty supply company known to stock combustible materials,” the police department said in a news release.

Clinton Township is roughly 25 miles northeast of downtown Detroit.

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