Fire officials fear increased risk of butane explosions

Use of butane to make potent pot product could increase once marijuana is legal

An explosion so strong it knocked a home off its foundation. Blasts that have demolished houses, killed and seriously injured people. And now, with marijuana legalization around the corner, a worry from fire officials provincewide that the situation could get worse. A process used to produce hyper-potent marijuana derivatives at home — so-called butane honey-oil extractions — is prompting warnings from fire officials and stoking concerns more blazes and explosions are possible once legal pot hits the market Oct. 17 and people attempt to use flammable solvents to refine the drug.

“As the laws become more relaxed regarding marijuana, I think there is the potential for us to see more,” London acting deputy fire chief Jack Burt said.

Only time will tell, Burt said, but London firefighters have already responded to more cases involving butane extractions to produce honey oil, including two in the past year. One in late 2016 left a man with serious burns to the front of his body. “He was doing it in the bathroom, when his family was out in the other room. It caused a lot of damage to the house,” he said. “The other was in a shed … We are seeing that increase.”

Another butane explosion in the basement of a Hamilton Road home in December was strong enough to blast the bricks off the outside of the house. A man suffered burns to 25 per cent of his body.

Producing the highly potent marijuana derivative, sometimes called honey oil or dab, is extremely dangerous, Office of the Ontario Fire Marshal investigator Jason Williams said.

It involves using a strong solvent — usually butane but sometimes propane — to extract THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, from the plant material. Using filters and containers, the butane is passed through the marijuana, stripping oil and THC from the buds. The butane is then evaporated, leaving a honey-coloured, highly potent resin behind. “With the honey oil you can get these days — over 90 per cent THC concentration in a normal marijuana bud — it can be 20 to 30 per cent THC,” said Williams, who’s written papers on butane extractions and testified in court as an expert witness.

“They’re using it in all kinds of things … It’s all over the place.” The provincial agency — which investigates fatal fires, explosions, suspected arsons, drug-related blazes, fires at vulnerable residences or fires that cause more than $500,000 damage — has probed 40 butane extraction-related fires or explosions in the last five years, Williams said.

There are plenty more, Williams said, probed by local fire investigators because they don’t meet the threshold for the fire marshal to be called in. Regardless of the number provincewide, it’s a situation the organization is monitoring closely. “There is a concern ... It’s been an ongoing issue for quite some time,” said Scott Evenden, fire investigator and operations manager at the Office of the Ontario Fire Marshal. “Our concern is the individuals that decide to do this in the absence of knowing what they’re dealing with.” Butane is liquid in the can, but turns to a vapour in the air, Evenden said. That flammable vapour can collect in enclosed spaces and fuel flash fires or explosions. Williams is concerned marijuana legalization nationwide, and how readily available butane extraction materials and instructions are, could lead to more people trying to produce honey oil themselves. It’s already happened in Colorado, where the state saw a dramatic spike in butane honey-oil extraction explosions in 2014 — the same year it legalized recreational marijuana, Williams said.

Data compiled by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area — a government agency that tracks drug statistics in four western American states — found the number of explosions increased by 167 per cent from 2013 to 2014, from 12 reported and confirmed cases to 32.

The jurisdiction had none between 2010 and 2012.

A state law that came into effect July 2015 barred people from using flammable solvents to create honey oil. People who spark fires or explosions by using butane to process marijuana in Canada can be charged with several offences, including arson by negligence. Butane-extraction explosions and fires aren’t just a danger to the people manufacturing marijuana derivatives, Williams said, they ’re potentially harmful to neighbours and emergency crews, too. “An explosion occurring with butane, I’ve seen it take out several homes. It’s a huge hazard,” he said, adding butane vapours can be extremely volatile. “I’ve been personally involved in investigations where people have been killed, where people have been seriously injured, where both residential and commercial properties have been completely destroyed.” Legalized marijuana won’t pose a fire risk on its own, Toronto fire deputy chief Jim Jessop said. But people circumventing the fire code, discharging butane in buildings that aren’t designed for that use, certainly will, he said.

He was doing it in the bathroom, when his family was out in the other room. It caused a lot of damage to the house.