Man severly injured after Sterling Heights garage explosion

A man was hospitalized with severe injuries after an explosion in his garage in Sterling Heights Wednesday evening.

A spokesperson for the Sterling Heights police department tells us they got a call around 9 p.m. about a house explosion at an address in the 8500 block of Canal Road. Investigators say he was working on something in the garage at the time when the explosion happened.

A family member at the scene told us that the man hospitalized is a 70-year-old retired janitor and mechanic. They say he was most likely working on a car in his detached garage when the explosion happened. That family member told us the victim has serious burns and ingested a lot of smoke.

The cause of the explosion is unknown at this time, as the department has called in the Michigan State Police Bomb Squad to the scene. Police did confirm that the explosion was contained to the garage.