Beauty Products Turn Into Dangerous Missiles During New York State Beauty Salon Blaze
"The main ingredient that propels the aerosol out is butane and propane," said town fire protection specialist William Schmitt. Those are the same chemicals in some cigarette lighters and gas grills.
"That would make it difficult to determine if there was something else added" to start a fire, he said.
The acrid smell of charred chemicals lingered on the corner of Central and Dott avenues Wednesday afternoon, along with the remains of thousands of aerosol cans, ripped open and shredded by fiery explosions overnight. Foam, wood and empty jugs of nail polish and other chemicals were scattered among the remains of the U.S. Beauty Supplies shop.
The first calls of a fire at the site came at 1:07 a.m. Wednesday, said Fuller Road Fire Company Chief Mike Romano. Soon after firefighters arrived, a series of 10 to 12 explosions blew flames more than two stories into the air and sent the metal spray cans flying, some of them still flaming as they hit the pavement.
Firefighters took cover behind an ambulance and police cars parked up the street. The driver of a ladder truck in front of the store raced across Central Avenue to the KFC for protection from the cans, according to police and fire officials.
One can struck firefighter Bob Davis in the face, and he went to Albany Memorial Hospital for stitches in his nose and lip.
The ladder truck, already anchored to the street by safety footings, could not be moved and the vehicle sustained about $10,000 worth of damage from flying cans, Romano said. One flew through the open passenger side door and shattered the driver's side windshield. The flames melted the passenger side seat cushion. The cans also dented the truck and left crescent-shaped scratches in the paint.
Other cans flew more than 200 feet across the street, landing behind the KFC restaurant.
By 2:30 a.m. Romano's crew had the fire under control. Two lanes of the street opened by 5:30 a.m. and the rest by 6 a.m., but firefighters were still sweeping glass off the sidewalk at 7 a.m. Romano said the state Department of Transportation had to send over a street sweeper to clean all the products out of the avenue, and cans still clattered beneath car wheels at the beginning of the afternoon rush hour.
The beauty supply shop is a total loss, Romano said. Police did not know who owned the business or the building.
An empty storefront next door is salvageable, but damaged -- about a third of the roof on that building was charred.
"It's all cosmetic," Romano said.
Meanwhile, Schmitt paced the sidewalk outside the police tape Wednesday afternoon. A private environmental cleanup firm was to scour the building before the investigators could begin their work, but they needed money from the insurance company before they could begin.
