Investigators began the on-site investigation into the Clinton Township industrial fire and explosion on Monday, one week after the deadly blast.
On March 4, a business called Select Distributors erupted in flames, causing multiple explosions throughout the night that killed one teenager and sent debris flying as far as a a mile and a half from the building.
As of this past Friday, fire officials said it was still too dangerous to access the explosion site directly, but on Monday, they were able to get on side for the first time.
I was on near the site on Monday and you can still see mounds of debris and piles of canisters. It's all evidence that investigators can finally access on-site, bringing them one step closer to hopefully finding answers.
"I'm just devastated to see what this catastrophic site looks like," Victor Schultz, who lives near the explosion site, said.
He lives within two miles of Select Distributors and watched with his neighbors in horror last Monday as it erupted in flames, sending canisters of butane and nitrous oxide flying for a mile and a half.
Now, he's wondering what happened.
Fire officials had previously said the site was too dangerous to access directly, however, Fire Chief Tim Duncan said over the weekend, the smoldering dissipated enough to make on-site access possible.
Now, a plethora of teams, including the ATF and EPA are investigating.
"The big key to any fire is you want to eliminate the thoughts of something being intentional, so that's really the first step you're looking at to say, 'OK was this an intentional act?'" Duncan said.
Next, Duncan said investigators will be working to find out what happened.
"You essentially had such a powerful blast and with so much fire that some of the typical ways that you would investigate a scene might be impossible," Duncan said. "I think you're looking at least a month and it could be indeterminate forever."
