Consumers Energy Responds to Home Explosion in Royal Oak

Residents of Cooper and Elmwood avenues in Royal Oak are being housed at the Quality Inn in Troy after an afternoon explosion that took the life of an adult male.

Royal Oak Police Chief Corrigan O'Donohue confirmed a 58-year-old man was fatally injured in an explosion in the 4200 block of Cooper Avenue.

The man was found on the front lawn and is believed to have been inside the house at the time of the explosion, O'Donohue said.

“Our hearts go out to family members of the victim,” Debra Dodd of Consumers Energy told Patch.

Consumers Energy was in the neighborhood today working on a main replacement program, Dodd said. The incident is under investigation.

"We have to just basically sift through evidence. We have to try to recover the gas meter, if it's not too heavily damaged and then test the pipe leading to the home ... it could take weeks or months to determine what actually happened," Dodd told Fox 2.

Dodd confirmed the natural gas and electricity provider received a phone call at 4:55 p.m. of a possible explosion that destroyed one home, left two heavily damaged and many others with blown out windows and fatally injured one.

The gas was shut off at 6:37 p.m., according to Dodd, and residents living on Cooper and Elmwood avenues between Nakota and Massoit Road were sent to Troy. 

Workers are going door to door in the area checking for the presence of gas, she said.

“We are putting residents affected by the evacuation up at the Quality Inn, located at 2537 Rochester Ct. in Troy,” Dodd said. “Residents may check in. They will need to provide an ID that has a name and address.”

The Red Cross is on the scene to provide transportation to the hotel for individuals unable to get to their vehicles due to public safety barricades in the area.

The phone number for the Quality Inn is 248-689-7500.