Nearby Homes Catch Fire After Vacant House Explodes in Detroit

About a half-dozen homes in southwestern Detroit have been damaged or destroyed by fires that started after an explosion in a vacant house.

Mayor Mike Duggan’s spokesman John Roach says investigators believe the explosion on Oakdale Street in the afternoon on Nov. 7 followed a natural gas leak.

He says witnesses saw a man with burning clothing running from the vacant house shortly before it exploded.

Five adjacent occupied homes caught fire. Most of the people who lived in the wood bungalow-style houses weren’t home when the fires started. No injuries to residents were reported.

Arson investigators are expected to question a man who showed up at an area hospital with burns.