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Explosion, massive fire in Orion Twp was 'very rare,' Consumers Energy says

Posted at 5:32 AM, Nov 21, 2017
and last updated 2017-11-22 04:54:49-05

Schools and roads are open following a massive fire in Orion Township Monday evening. It's almost like nothing ever happened, but the images and sounds will be unforgettable for many. 

Witnesses described the explosion and fire near Great Lakes Crossing as sounding like a "jet engine." 

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The fire near Brown and Joslyn roads could be seen and even heard from miles away. 

Consumers Energy says they noticed a drop in the gas pressure about 10 minutes before 10 p.m. A 22-inch diameter steel gas transmission line reportedly ruptured, causing the explosion and fire. 

Responders were able to cut off the flow of gas on either end of a 7-mile section of the line, allowing the fire to burn itself out. 

Consumers says no customers had service interrupted because of the incident and no injuries were reported. 

A spokesperson says what happened was very rare and the cause of the rupture is under investigation.  

Lake Orion Schools tweeted that the Oakland County Sheriff's Office says the incident will not affect schools, businesses or other activities. 

All 911 and non-emergency 10 digit telephone services at the Oakland County Sheriff's Office and countywide PSAPs were fully restored early this morning following an outage after the fire incident.