Investigation underway at site of massive fire

CLINTON TOWNSHIP — The on-site investigation into the March 4 fire at a Clinton Township business has begun, according to township officials.

While the rubble at the site of what was Select Distributors and the Goo Smoke Shop will not be cleared until early April, experts are being brought in to assess the scene on behalf of government agencies, the building’s owners and surrounding businesses, according to Clinton Township Fire Chief Tim Duncan.

Investigators still do not have a clear understanding of what caused the fire.

At a press conference on March 8, township officials outlined their approach to investigating the blaze.

“There’s a process and a scientific procedure that we follow in fire investigation, and this team that’s being assembled will focus on getting that right,” said Fire Marshal Chuck Champagne of the Clinton Township Fire Department.

Lingering fires and the dangers presented by unexploded nitrous oxide tanks in the rubble delayed the physical investigation for over a week while interviews and other aspects of the investigation began on the night of the inferno. The investigative team will include the Clinton Township fire and police departments, the Michigan State Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Private investigators are involved as well. Clinton Township Supervisor Bob Cannon said the Major Crimes Unit of the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office is on standby for this case.

“It’s not time yet, it’s not time, but (Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido) stands ready,” Cannon said. “At the top of his list are three people who are going to help Clinton Township PD.”

Even with the investigation far from finished, it is not hard to see charges and court proceedings looming. The fire that broke out after 9 p.m. on March 4 turned explosive, likely due to the butane and nitrous oxide tanks that were reportedly in a building ill-suited for hazardous storage. Previous inspections of the site showed no presence of hazardous materials.

“The zoning is irrelevant to the storage of items in a building,” said Barry Miller, Clinton Township building department superintendent. “There’s three levels of storage you can have in buildings. It’s S1, S2 and then hazard. … At the time of inspection, they only had things that would have qualified well under the S1 category. Once they started bringing in materials that we’re seeing laying around, they would have clearly went into the (hazard) category. The building would have had to be built completely differently.”

The explosive materials damaged surrounding businesses and emergency vehicles, injured one Clinton Township Firefighter and killed 19-year-old Clinton Township resident Turner Salter, who was witnessing the fire from about half a mile away.

Debris from the fire was sent all over the surrounding area. Teams from the Environmental Protection Agency have been sent in to clean up a target area covering a 2-mile radius around the building. The work of EPA personnel has since tightened to the immediate surroundings of the building, including the railways to the west. Initial concerns of air and water contamination were ruled out by the Macomb County Emergency Management hazardous materials team.

“There was a determination made early on that there was no concern as far as anything toxic in the air, so that was eliminated as a problem for residents in the surrounding area,” Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel said on March 5. “People were wondering if there was anything leaking into the water systems or anything; that (kind of contamination is) just not feasible, so that was not a concern, either.”

Township officials have stressed that debris and souvenirs around the site should not be picked up. Unexploded canisters could explode if heated and debris can be sharp. Any debris found can be reported to the Macomb County dispatch center at (586) 469-5502.