Police ID 48-year-old Jackson County man killed in Dexter explosion
Michael Koch, 48, of Brooklyn, Mich., died in Monday's explosion at the Dexter Utilities Department wastewater treatment plant.
John Counts | AnnArbor.com
The Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday released the name of the 48-year-old Brooklyn, Mich. man who died Monday afternoon from injuries suffered in an explosion at the Dexter Utilities Department.
Michael Koch died at University of Michigan Hospital Monday afternoon. He was working on a concrete lid of a tank at the wastewater treatment plant when a welder’s torch ignited methane gas and exploded.
Koch worked for Platinum Mechanical, Inc., a plumbing contractor out of Flint. A representative from the company declined comment when reached Tuesday morning.
“The demolition contractors were on site when the explosion occurred and it did kill one of our Local 190 employees,” the representative said, before declining further comment out of respect for Koch’s family.
Koch was working on the tank with David McBride, a 23-year-old Howell man. McBride was in stable condition after the blast Monday afternoon. The Dexter Area Fire Department was dispatched to the plant, 8360 Huron St., at 1:39 p.m. Monday after the explosion was reported.
McBride works for Regal Recycling. His condition was not clear Tuesday afternoon.
The explosion is not being investigated as a criminal incident, Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Geoffrey Fox said Tuesday. However, Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) officials are investigating.
Andrea Miller, communications representative for the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA), said the Construction Safety and Health Division initiated an investigation Monday into the explosion. She said the investigation into the explosion could take several weeks.
Miller said investigators will talk to police and fire representatives, along with witnesses about the incident before making the report.
“The compliance officer will assess the physical information from the accident site, gather information related to the accident, take photos and measurements, conduct interviews and compile this information into a report,” she said in a statement.
MIOSHA is a division of LARA. The Construction Safety and Health Division is one of two enforcement divisions within MIOSHA.
Koch and McBride were working as a part of a $3.3 million sludge handling improvement project that started in October, according to village officials. The concrete holding tank the men were working on collects sewer waste. The main contractor for the project is A.Z. Shmina, Inc.
Both men were in the tank at the time of the explosion. The force of the blast blew Koch out of the tank and other workers assisted McBride out. When firefighters arrived on scene, both men were on the roof of a nearby building.
Village of Dexter Manager Donna Dettling said the plant continues to operate and the village is waiting for the police and state investigations to wrap up to determine if it needs to do its own.
“I’m not sure what our attorneys are going to advise us on what we’re going to do, if we’ll do an investigation independent of the others,” she said, adding it was too early in the process to tell.
View Dexter explosion in a larger map
Kyle Feldscher covers cops and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.
Comments
Skoch
Sun, Jun 23, 2013 : 1:59 p.m.
Mike was my husband and very highly trained local 190 pipefitter, he was working on a concrete lid and was not affiliated with the 23 year old who either didn't know what he was doing or was told to. When OSHA's report comes out later this week or next the whole story will be out until then I hope no one will refer to Mike as if he and some kid had a welding accident, nothing is farther from the truth. Mike had worked hard his whole life and helped me raise our 4 children, he was only able to enjoy our beautiful granddaughter for a year and half. His family was everything, he had so much to live for.
Tom
Tue, Apr 23, 2013 : 9:11 p.m.
It is indeed Mike Koch, formerly of Dexter. Dexter High School Graduate.
MoreOutOfLife
Tue, Apr 23, 2013 : 7:37 p.m.
So tragic. I believe Mike Koch is from Dexter and grew up there. Condolences and prayers to the family of Mike, and prayers to the other gentleman for a complete recovery.
Elaine F. Owsley
Tue, Apr 23, 2013 : 7:28 p.m.
The location is east and north of your arrow. On the east side of the river.
Kyle Feldscher
Tue, Apr 23, 2013 : 7:39 p.m.
I've adjusted the map. I plugged the address of the site into Google Maps. As the original map indicated, the location was approximate.
lisam
Tue, Apr 23, 2013 : 7:24 p.m.
Kyle, out of respect for the deceased and his family...please when reporting, be consistent with the names in your article. You have two different spellings. Really?
Really?????
Tue, Apr 23, 2013 : 7:16 p.m.
Is the injured person's last name McBride or McBridge? Both are used throughout the story. How disrespectful to the person.
Jack Gladney
Tue, Apr 23, 2013 : 11:49 p.m.
Ya, I'm sure that error was made out of disrespect. This event has enough drama on its own, Really.
Kyle Feldscher
Tue, Apr 23, 2013 : 7:20 p.m.
That typo has been fixed, thank you for pointing it out.
Kyle Feldscher
Tue, Apr 23, 2013 : 7:08 p.m.
andys- I'm going to reply to you here so that it will be viewed by more people, just to clear this up. The tanks were pretty high off the ground, approximately two stories. There was a small building, also about two stories, next to them. My speculation is the men were on the roof of the tank and it was not that far for them to get to the roof of the building where they were found. We were not allowed back in the area where the explosion happened yesterday, so most of what I'm telling you we were able to glen from fire officials and Google Earth images of the plant.
babs
Wed, Apr 24, 2013 : 3:43 a.m.
...information you were able to 'glean'.
andys
Tue, Apr 23, 2013 : 6:58 p.m.
"Both men were in the tank at the time of the explosion. The force of the blast blew Koch out of the tank and other workers assisted McBride out. When firefighters arrived on scene, both men were on the roof of a nearby building." I don't follow this. How / why were the men on the roof of a nearby building? Not trying to be snarky (as this is terrible event), but I've seen this for two days now, and am still puzzled.
andys
Tue, Apr 23, 2013 : 6:55 p.m.
Tragic, my thoughts are with the families.