Clinton Township explosion: Cleanup underway at site nearly 6 months later

EPA bringing heavy equipment to clean up Clinton Township explosion site

The EPA is bringing in specific heavy equipment to clean up the powder and chemicals under all the rubble -- including uncovered cans of butane, intact compressed gas cylinders, vape pens, and lithium-ion batteries.

CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (FOX 2) - It has been nearly half a year since an explosion killed a 19-year-old and scattered thousands of illegal butane canisters across Clinton Township.

"It’s been surreal. No one anticipated something like this. We didn’t have any idea that they had brought all this material into their back room," said Clinton Township Supervisor Bob Cannon. "No one had a clue that this would blow up."

Now, the Environmental Protection Agency is working to clean up the site of the business that exploded on 15 Mile Road on March 4, Goo Smoke Shop and Select Distributors Warehouse. While the owner, Noor Kestou, awaits his next court date.

The EPA is bringing in specific heavy equipment to clean up the powder and chemicals under all the rubble, including uncovered cans of butane, intact compressed gas cylinders, vape pens, and lithium-ion batteries.

"The equipment is coming from throughout the country," Cannon said. "It’s not just little equipment. It’s very specialized equipment that's got to be safe – because we don’t know what's under there."

The EPA is expected to be at the site for about 100 days, carefully going through the mess and investigating to see what they may uncover.

For example, there is a safe that has not been recovered yet.

"It’s under that rubble, so that’s one of those things everybody wants to see," Cannon said. "We want to find out what's in the safe. We don’t know if there's money, we don't know if there's papers, we don't know if there's contracts – we don’t know.

Many questions remain unanswered about what may have been going on inside the warehouse.

According to a release from the EPA, the clean-up operation will cost $2.7 million.

But the Clinton Township supervisor said one thing is clear – the money is not coming out of taxpayers' pockets.

"The EPA is now going to clean it up at their expense, and they will then go about trying to collect money from whoever is responsible for this tragedy," Cannon said.

The heavy equipment will arrive at the scene next week.

The initial cleanup of the Goo Smoke Shop and Select Distributors Warehouse included degassing and recycling more than 3,500 compressed gas cylinders, as well as removing three 55-gallong drums of lithium-ion batteries.

The warehouse owner, Kestou, has since been charged with involuntary manslaughter. He was extradited to Michigan in April after buying a one-way ticket out of the country.

Find more information about the clean-up here.