CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WXYZ) — The Environmental Protection Agency is set to begin cleaning up the site of an explosion and fire in Clinton Township.
The incident happened on March 4. An investigation later revealed thousands of illegally stored canisters of nitrous oxide and butane were the cause.
Hear more from the EPA on their plan in the video below:
The fire sent canisters flying into the night sky for miles. One of those canisters hit and killed 19-year-old Turner Salter.
"First of all, I’d like to give my condolences out to the family that lost their child. That’s devastating and I wouldn’t even imagine," said Kevin Kupiec, who lives near the explosion site.
The image of the night is hard to forget for neighbors like Kupiec. He says the repeated explosions continued well into the next day.
"I just remember I didn’t feel safe. I just wanted to get the hell out of here," he said. "I just really hope whoever is working on the site is safe and they get it cleaned up as soon as possible. It’s treacherous to look at."
The canisters also covered the parking lots of area businesses and caused thousands of dollars in damage.
"We do business printing in this facility. We have two other facilities that we moved into after the explosion so we’re able to work as though nothing happened," said Bob Hindman, who owns American Graphics directly in front of the explosion site.
Hindman says his business was without power for days after the explosion. He also says several canisters landed on top of his building melting holes into the roof.
"We did lose 85% of our equipment, or having troubles with it. So all the clean up has been a little challenging to say the least," Hindman said. "We had the metal that came down on top of the roof and melted holes in it. We didn’t realize until it rained the next day. That water came in printing presses and the folding and binding equipment don’t run with water. So we lost a lot of it to rust."
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The EPA says they expect the cleanup to take around 100 working days. The agency plans to ramp up work after Labor Day, starting by separating hazardous material. Eventually, all material will be discarded. The agency says there are safety concerns at the site.
"We still have in tact cans of ultra refined butane and we still have in tact compressed gas cylinders containing nitrous oxide. Now nitrous oxide is not flammable, but it’s an oxidizer. So you have an oxidizer next to a flammable, which is ultra refined butane. It’s just like going to a hospital and they say don’t smoke. It’s the same thing here. If there’s an ignition source, there’s always a potential threat that it could set off another fire," said EPA federal on-site coordinator Sean Kane. "As we go in, we have to evaluate what is the threat level here? Are there still cans of ultra fine butane? Are there other things in there that we don’t know about?"
The clean up is expected to cost $2.5 million. The EPA says federal funding will take care of the clean up cost initially, however the agency has fund reimbursement strategies.
Township leaders say they’re working to prevent this from happening again.
"What we’re trying to do is work with the state because we would like the ability for our fire inspectors and our building department inspectors to go in to back rooms unannounced and right now, we can’t do that," Township Supervisor Bob Canon said. "We inspected this property when they moved in and everything met every code. There wasn’t what was there in the end."
The township is asking people to continue avoiding the fenced-in area as work is underway.
