911 Knocked Out by Gas Fire in Michigan County

In the early hours after a massive Monday night fire in the Orion Township-Auburn Hills area knocked out the 911 system for the Oakland County Sheriff's Office, the phone system has been restored and "nothing suspicious or unusual relating to an intentional act" has been found by investigators, the county announced Tuesday morning.

The blaze that began about 11 p.m. Monday on the north side of Brown Road, west of Joslyn Road, was at the border of Orion Township and Auburn Hills and knocked out the Oakland County Sheriff’s 911 system, which was back online early Tuesday. The fire resulted from a gas line eruption.

According to a statement from the Oakland County Sheriff's Office, "the explosion and blast area encompasses roughly 30-40 yards around the crater. The blast exposed about 30 feet of the 22-inch natural gas line, creating a crater 18 feet deep."

The high-pressure natural gas transmission line belonging to Consumers Energy has been shut, the company said early Tuesday, and the fire was expected to burn itself out.