Suspected hash-oil lab blast injures 1

A man was injured Thursday night after a suspected butane hashoil lab exploded in a shed behind a home in Santa Rosa, prompting the evacuation of nearby homes and an apartment complex, officials said Friday.

The incident comes less than a year after an explosion caused by a butane-fueled hash-oil lab at a Walnut Creek apartment building critically burned two people. Several similar explosions have occurred in Humboldt County this year, and in July police arrested a group of people who were allegedly running a hash-oil lab in a Pittsburg home.

“We’re seeing them in residential settings, which is a concern of ours — not only putting themselves at risk but others around them at risk as well,” Paul Lowenthal, the assistant fire marshal with the Santa Rosa Fire Department, said of hashoil labs.

Lowenthal said Thursday’s fire underscores the dangers of operating an illicit drug lab in a densely populated neighborhood.

Firefighters and officers responded shortly before 10:30 p.m. Thursday to a report of an explosion and fire on the 1100 block of Humboldt Street. Firefighters arrived and found a 15by-15-foot storage building behind a home in flames, police said.

“The fire had spread to surrounding trees, neighboring fences, a neighbor’s backyard and was impinging on a two-story apartment complex,” Lowenthal said.

Investigators suspect the fire resulted from the production of “honey oil,” the street name for liquid cannabis. Authorities discovered paraphernalia related to the production of hash oil when they dug through the debris afterward, Lowenthal said.

Jonathan Dubois, 23, was found injured at the explosion scene, but police did not say if he was involved in the suspected drug lab or was just in proximity to it when it blew up. He suffered burns to the front and back of his body and was taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.

“Dubois was initially conscious and talking,” said Sgt. Brenda Harrington of the Santa Rosa Police Department. He was later flown by helicopter to another Bay Area hospital for treatment, police said

The fire caused approximately $40,000 in damages to all of the properties involved, Lowenthal said.

Residents from homes and apartments nearby were evacuated as firefighters attacked the the blaze to prevent it from spreading, Harrington said.

The process of making hash oil typically involves pouring butane into a metal or plastic tube filled with loose marijuana, allowing the liquid to evaporate, and then extracting the hash oil. The thick, yellow-orange oil is similar in color to honey.

Fire officials said the use of butane in the hashoil extraction process is especially dangerous because the fumes are odorless, heavy and highly volatile.

Most of the fires resulting from hash-oil labs, Lowenthal said, are “explosion or flash-type fires where flammable gas reaches an ignition source.”

In August, Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation that boosted penalties on those who operate butane hash-oil labs in residential neighborhoods.

The investigation into the Santa Rosa explosion is ongoing.