Explosion in Southfield rocks neighborhood

(WXYZ) - Investigators with the Southfield Fire Department came back to a house on Maplewood Friday in hopes of preventing another explosion like the one that tore apart a vehicle the day prior. 

An explosion rocked a neighborhood in Southfield Wednesday  after a vehicle filled with acetylene tanks exploded, injuring the 55-year-old driver.

“The gentleman had smelled it after he started the car, he had smelled it and then he had tried to exit the car and just when he stepped out, the car exploded,” said Southfield Fire Department Captain Richard Scheich.

It was a leaking acetylene tank that caused the explosion in the vehicle. The driver was reportedly going to sell 20 of the tanks for scrap. The tanks were leftover from his landlord's closed plumbing business. We're told the man who owns the home is in his 80s. 

“It was a tremendous boom,” said Sean Christie, a neighbor. “The whole house shook. ”

The 55-year-old who rents a room in the house was taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries. 

Fire officials say there are other tanks that are still in the house and need to be removed immediately and drained. 

"We're going to do our best to suggest he remove them," said Southfield Fire Chief Keith Rowley. "We'll stay on top of this."