Police found recipes for explosives written on scrap paper and notepads in the apartment’and memberships to pyromania clubs in the truck’of a 31-year-old man seriously injured in last week’s explosion at an Independence Township apartment complex.
Andy Impola, 31, and Lee Marvin Impola, 32, were reportedly inside a maintenance building at Landcaster Lakes Apartments off Dixie Highway, just south of M-15 when the blast occurred around 4 p.m., Wed., July 4.
Both men, who authorities believe were making homemade fireworks, remain hospitalized.
One witness told police he heard a loud explosion, ran out of his apartment, and helped drag one of the Impolas, who are brothers, out of the building.
The man said the sound of the blast reminded him of an ordinance detonation from his military days.
Another large explosion, followed by several smaller blasts, ripped through the air moments later.
Police believe the men may have been taking orders for the explosives.
‘It’s easy to make things that go bang,? said Lt. Dale LaBair, commander of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office Independence Township substation, who was on the scene shortly after the explosion. ‘But those who manufacture these devices legitimately do it under the strictest conditions. Anyone else is always pushing their luck.?
An employee of the apartment complex told investigators the building contained gasoline, propane tanks, paint, oils, an oxy-acetylene torch with tank, and weed killer.
‘It’s just plain lucky no innocent people got hurt,? said LaBair. ‘There’s a lot of pedestrian traffic in that area, kids on bikes. It was just lucky.?
Andy Impola is employed as a Landcaster Lakes maintenance person, and also lives in the complex.
Lee Impola is a Burton resident.
According to a police press release, the two were manufacturing flash powder M-series-type devices,’such as M-80s, M-200s and ‘quarter sticks?’all dangerous explosives’inside the maintenance building.
Flames engulfed the structure almost immediately following the explosion, leading to a Fourth of July accident among the worst in recent history.
‘I’ve been here 30 years I’ve never seen one like this,? said Undersheriff Mike McCabe, of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office. ‘We’ve had people blow fingers off, blow hands off, but I’ve never seen one that’s basically become a fire ball and consumed an entire building and almost kill two people.?
The situation, said McCabe, was complicated by the fact that other materials’such as the paint and gasoline’were stored in the shed.
The’Sheriff’s Office, Independence Township Fire Department and the’ATF’are continuing the investigation, and police are requesting that anyone possessing such devices turn them in to’a local’police agency’or fire department’as they are very dangerous and illegal.