Discount Dave’s investigator discounts arson & says furniture store fire possibly from a natural gas explosion. Latest from Lansing, MI.
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Dave Sheets in a photo by Greg DeRuitter of the Lansing State Journal.
See our previous coverage of this story
On Tuesday we brought you the story of Discount Dave Sheets. His furniture store in Lansing, Michigan burned down on May 3. With city fire investigators calling the fire arson, Sheets believes the public will think he set his own store on fire. Dave Sheets has Charles Barnes of C.A. Barnes Consulting in Bellevue, Michigan looking into this matter.
Here is the latest in an article by Kevin Grasha at LSJ.com:
An investigator hired by the owner of Discount Dave’s Buy Rite Furniture said a massive explosion on one of the first two floors likely caused the fire that destroyed the building.
Charles Barnes of Bellevue-based C.A. Barnes Consulting, who was at the site today, said arson likely was not the cause.
He said a natural gas explosion was a possibility.
Lansing fire investigators said this week that they believe the fire was intentionally set, but did not release any details or say if there are any suspects.
An accelerant like gasoline being poured on couches and furniture would not cause the kind of explosion that appeared to happen, Barnes said.
“I don’t know what you’d put in there that would cause that kind of explosion,” said Barnes, who was photographing the scene today.
Many refrigerators, washers and driers in the basement showroom had been overturned or moved several feet. The fire did not reach the basement, which has a 2-foot-thick concrete ceiling.
“The explosion could have happened on the main floor and come down the stairway,” Barnes said.
Insurance company investigators have determined that the May 3 fire wasn’t arson.
The 23,000-square-foot furniture store on South Washington Avenue is now a pile of brick, charred wood and twisted metal.
Owner Dave Sheets, who suffered an anxiety attack when someone called to tell him about the fire and said he was hospitalized for three days, has always disputed the arson theory.
Sheets has criticized the city for ruling that the fire was intentionally set.
“The more I think about it, the more agitated I get,” he said today.
