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Man charged after explosions, fire at apartment

Posted at 12:06 PM, Feb 03, 2016
and last updated 2016-02-03 14:12:54-05

A Glendale resident has been charged with causing explosions and a fire at an apartment last February.

Court documents show that 43-year-old Michael Anthony Salas has been charged with causing the fire and explosions at the Paseo Park Apartments near 51st Avenue and Thunderbird Road that injured himself, his fiance and his fiance's grandmother.

Glendale police say that on February 4, 2015 around 6 p.m. Salas was manufacturing marijuana wax by extracting THC from marijuana by using butane fuel.

The explosions and fire caused $20,000 in damage and landed the two woman in the hospital with burns and puncture wounds.

Neighbors reported hearing an explosion and seeing a fire at a bottom apartment, followed by a second blast a few minutes later. The young woman's grandmother says Salas told her to get out after the first blast, and he then pulled the woman out to the curb where paramedics tended to her afterwards.  

Air15 video at the time showed several fire crews at the apartment complex with residents waiting in the parking lot.

Salas has been charged with manufacturing narcotic drugs and criminal damage. He is scheduled to turn himself in on February 26.