When Damien O’Daniel returned from his lunch break at Releaf Labs on April 27, 2023, a coworker was operating a hazardous marijuana extraction machine with the gas clamps wide open. Butane poured into the air rapidly, but the alarms didn’t sound.
If the system was up to code, the odorless gas would have triggered an alarm. But it wasn’t, according to court documents. Releaf Labs had recently moved into a new, unlicensed building after a wildfire damaged its first facility, O’Daniel said.
O’Daniel told his coworker that they needed to close the valves. His coworker picked up a battery-powered screwdriver and pulled the trigger. They were immediately engulfed in flames…