Wednesday, April 15, 2015

HONEY OIL LAB EXPLOSION IN REDDING, CALIFORNIA BURNS 5 MEN, BLOWS OFF ROOF





APRIL 13, 2015

REDDING, CALIFORNIA

What happens when you discharge flammable gas into a room while trying to concentrate marijuana indoors? There’s an easy answer to that question: 

eventually you blow your house up, get severe burns, and go to the hospital, before going to jail and getting charged with running a drug lab.

Five suspects in Redding, CA. are learning this the hard way this week after firefighters responded to a midnight call of an explosion in a residential Redding neighborhood Monday.

Reports indicate the suspects were venting cannisters of butane indoors in an effort to extract and concentrate the active ingredients in cannabis plants.

“The garage’s roof blew off and landed across the street, and the garage collapsed,” according to reports.

Police and fire out at a house where there was a reported explosion in Redding this morning. pic.twitter.com/rb2R0di7K9
— Damon Arthur (@damonarthur_RS) April 13, 2015

Redding Fire Department Battalion Chief Steve Reilly said the hash lab explosion was the third in six months. 

Such explosions are on the rise as the prices for marijuana plummet amid legalization, leading amateur chemists to chase profits to be had from extractions of plant waste. While plant waste is considered garbage, extracts derived from waste can retail for about $40 per gram. Medical cannabis extracts in California are a surging, multi-million dollar industry with zero regulation. Butane hash oil is illegal to make in California, but legal for medical patients and collectives to possess. Other states, like Colorado are regulating commercial extraction like they would hard alcohol-makers.

Pending legislation in the California Assembly would increase prison sentences for hash oil manufacturers who injure others, especially children, in residential explosions.

Experts say cannabis extraction using flammable solvents like butane must never be performed indoors. Extractions can be safely performed by trained, certified technicians working with open systems in an outside area, or with closed-loop systems in certified industrial facilities.

For perspective, every year Americans who try and deep-fry turkeys cause an average of five deaths, 60 injuries, the destruction of 900 homes, and more than $15 million in property damage, according to the National Fire Protection Association. 

Source: http://blog.sfgate.com

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SUSPECTED HONEY OIL LAB EXPLOSION IN REDDING BURNS 5 MEN, BLOWS OFF ROOF

APRIL 13, 2015

Five men were seriously burned and a Redding neighborhood was jarred awake early Monday when a suspected honey oil lab exploded inside a garage, sending its roof flying through the air, authorities said.

The explosion occurred about 1 a.m. in a detached garage in the 1600 block of Green Street, a quiet residential neighborhood packed with single-family homes. When firefighters arrived, they found five men wandering around out front with third-degree burns, said Deputy Chief Gerry Gray of the Redding Fire Department.

Though the men refused to cooperate, investigators found evidence of a honey oil lab inside the garage, including several butane cans, Gray said. A honey oil lab produces highly concentrated THC, the chemical that gives marijuana its “high” effect. The gooey substance is also called hash oil.

Butane is used in the concentrating process and explosions involving suspected honey oil labs are becoming more frequent in Redding, Gray said.

“We’ve seen our share in the last couple of years,” Gray said. “Ironically, in about half the incidents, the explosion blows the fire out.”

That was the result in Monday morning’s blast, he said. The force of the explosion was so great it blew out the flames after the initial fireball and shot the garage roof 40 feet down the road.

Gray lamented the rash of incidents on Twitter on Monday, saying “5 burn victims transported to hospitals this AM from possible honey oil explosion in #Redding on Green Street. Becoming too frequent.”

Gray said one of the worst incidents happened late last year, when a lab inside a multi-family apartment complex exploded and destroyed three units. Four more apartments were burned by the subsequent fire, he said.

“The butane is not just flammable, it’s explosive. When you do this in a house that’s confined, all it needs is an ignition source and then we have a problem,” Gray said.