(WXYZ) — The preliminary hearing for a man who is charged in the deadly Clinton Township explosion last year began on Thursday.
Watch our report about the preliminary hearing below:
Noor Noel Kestou, 31, of Commerce Township is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the explosion from March 2024 at Select Distributors and Goo Smoke Shop.
Watch below: Past coverage from the Clinton Township explosion in 2024
Investigators say that the building, owned and operated by Kestou, exploded because of thousands of cans of Nitrous oxide and butane illegally stored in the building. The business was not licensed to have those canisters.
The explosion sent debris flying for miles. A 19-year-old man died in that explosion after being struck in the head by a Nitrous oxide canister. His family attended the hearing.
Related video: Teen killed by Clinton Township explosion remembered as 'kind and gracious'
Kestou was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport weeks after the explosion. He was reportedly planning to depart for Hong Kong on a one-way ticket.
Multiple former employees of Kestou's business testified about the explosion that first responders compared to a “war zone.”
“I think within five minutes, we started hearing small explosions and it started to intensify,” said Kevin Zaytuna, Kestou’s cousin who worked at the business.
Employees recalled the tragedy.
“There was crashing. It almost seemed like a pallet fell or something and it didn’t stop,” said Francis Kashat, who worked as a third-party fulfillment for Select Distributors.
Watch below: Past coverage from the Clinton Township explosion in 2024
“It’s like a movie: you don’t remember exactly what’s going on, you’re just trying to survive,” said Joseph Kesto, the owner’s nephew who worked at the business.
One employee who testified shared safety concerns he had.
“When I was walking back there, I was making a joke but not a joke. I said, ‘is it safe to be that high?’ You are stacking products on top of each other,” said Laith Abusenenh, who did IT work for Select Distributors.
The prosecution presented a video showing in the background stacked shrink-wrapped pallets containing nitrous oxide inside the business, which was concerning to Abusenenh.
“He just didn’t care about safety. And it was very clear that stacking those products on top of each other was not the way to store them,” Abusenenh said.
Abusenenh said after the explosion, Kestou reached out to him again.
“He called me asking if there was any way to know how much people owe him. He wanted to collect on it,” Abusenenh said.
The EPA began cleanup on the site in August 2024, and officials say the cleanup was completed on Dec. 4, 2024, which included final disposal of waste materials to an EPA-approved facility.
In total, the EPA said there were 28,295 DOT-compromised aluminum and steel nitrous oxide compressed gas cylinders intact and fire-damaged. They were degassed, devalved and were recycled.
The final numbers of material cleaned up included:
- 857 tons of construction and demolition debris
- 7,253 tons of ferrous metal and 33,780 tons of non-ferrous metal were recycled.
- 174,051 (DDR damaged, defective or recalled) lithium-ion batteries were recycled.
- 12 lead acid batteries.
- 28,295 aluminum and steel nitrous oxide (N20) compressed gas cylinders were degassed, devalved and were recycled.
- 73 55-gallon drums containing 14,980 pounds of waste, nicotine compounds, liquids [or] nicotine preparations, liquid, n.o.s. (Lithium hydroxide)
- 12 drums (6,600 pounds) of nitrous oxide (N20) cream chargers (also known as whip-its)
- 4 drums (320 pounds) of waste, butane petroleum gases, liquefied.
- 12 drums (4,858 pounds) of lighters containing flammable liquid.
- 11 drums (4,400 pounds) of non-hazardous, non-regulated material (non-RCRA cleaner).
- 1 drum (400 pounds )of non-hazardous, non-regulated material (coil and antifreeze).
Court is adjourned until Wednesday morning, when we’ll hear from more witnesses.
