Teen killed by flying canister after massive vaping company explosion has debris raining down as far as a mile away
A teenager was killed by a canister sent flying through the air from a huge explosion at a Michigan vaping company a quarter of a mile away, according to officials.
The unidentified 19-year-old was fatally struck late Monday by the blast at Select Distributors in Clinton Township, outside Detroit, when a truckload of butane caught fire, NBC News reported.
“In my 25 years … this, by far, was the biggest [fire] that I’ve ever seen,” Clinton Township Fire Chief Tim Duncan told reporters early Tuesday.
Some people reported hearing explosions as far as 15 miles away — and police warned residents that debris was “being projected into the air and coming down as far as a mile away from the explosion.”
“We cannot stress enough the danger that is happening right now. Please, please, please stay inside and out of the vicinity,” police urged at the time, as blasts continued for around 30 minutes.
Nobody was in the vaping facility when it blew up, and the teen was the only known fatality. A firefighter suffered a minor injury, also from an exploding canister.
The almost constant explosions made it almost impossible to immediately tackle the blaze, the fire chief said.
“The building is almost completely burned down. Firefighters were unable to access it due to the hundreds, if not thousands of explosions occurring,” Duncan told reporters.
The fire was eventually under control by 11 p.m., WDIV said.
