Police Investigating Santa Cruz Hash Oil Explosion

(Image by Vjiced, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license; other images courtesy SCPD)

SANTA CRUZ-A 48-year-old man was severely burned when hash oil exploded and started a fire Wednesday in the garage area of a Santa Cruz apartment building, fire officials said Thursday.

Firefighters received a report of the fire at 8:16 p.m. at 110 Lindberg St., according to fire officials. The severely burned man was extricated from the building and treated by an advanced life support team before being flown to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center’s burn unit, according to fire officials.

Police officers evacuated several people from nearby apartments and they found the burned man in an apartment on the third floor where he lives with his wife and young child, police said. The suspect went upstairs after the explosion, according to police. Neither his wife nor child was injured in the fire, police said.

When they arrived, firefighters discovered multiple signs of an explosion in the garage area on the first floor of the apartment building, fire officials said.

Two sprinklers in the garage area turned on before firefighters got to the three-story apartment building and firefighters had the fire under control in five minutes, fire officials said.

A search by police of the garage and home turned up several items used to manufacture concentrated cannabis or hash oil, police said.

Santa Cruz police are investigating the incident, fire officials said. Anyone with information about the case is being asked to call the Santa Cruz Police Department Investigation Unit at (831) 420-5820.

-By Bay City News Service