(Photo: Kassem Rizk, @Krizk3 on Twitter)
Melvindale residents return home after massive gas explosion
Eric D. Lawrence and other Free Press staff 11:13 a.m. EDT July 2, 2016
A motorist crashed into a natural gas main at a DTE Energy facility in Melvindale early this morning, causing a massive explosion that initially forced the evacuation of thousands of residents.
Social media users said the explosion could be felt in Canada.
Miraculously, only the motorist appears to have been injured, although the extent of that person's injuries is unknown.
Shortly after 9 a.m., the evacuation order had been lifted and residents were allowed to return home.
Police Chief Chad Hayse described a dramatic scene, with fire burning the siding off several houses, which also had shattered windows.
"It's the worse fire I've ever seen in my life," Hayse said, noting that he could see the smoke from his own home miles away from the source of the explosion at DTE's Allen Road training facility.
A DTE official said the blaze had been extinguished at the company's facility, but Hayse noted that several utility poles continued to smolder. The intersection of Greenfield and Allen roads is closed because of damage to the road, and Hayse said several traffic signals are without power.
Workers repair a power line near the site of an explosion in Melvindale early Saturday. A burned building is visible. (Photo: Eric Lawrence/DFP)
Early estimates of the evacuation in the Detroit suburb had as many as 3,000 residents forced to leave their homes, but before 8:30 a.m., Hayse said the number was closer to 1,500 with an 18-block area under an evacuation order before that order was lifted. Melvindale, a 2.8-square-mile city, had 10,715 residents in 2010, according to census data from the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments.
The chaos unfolded about 2:30 a.m. when the motorist drove off the road for an unknown reason, traveled through a fence and hit the gas main. Hayse said a detective had gone to the hospital to try to interview the motorist.
Scott Simons, a DTE Energy spokesman, said the company was notified of the incident just after 3 a.m. and had crews on scene in about 10 minutes. Workers were able to shut off the gas, but residual gas in the line caught fire and ignited a three-story training building.
The blaze has been extinguished, and "everything is out, under control" at the site, Simons said.
Company officials are assessing the damage to the building.
Simons said a handful of electric customers are without power, but the shutdown of the gas line did not affect natural gas distribution.
The City of Melvindale used its Facebook page to notify residents of the incident, saying "the gas line at Allen Road and Elizabeth exploded. People in that area are being evacuated."
Witnesses near the scene of the explosion shared photos and video on social media.
The force of the explosion was so powerful that one Twitter user reported seeing and feeling the explosion from Canada.