UPDATE: 1:52 a.m. EST — The county sheriff's office said they are trying to recover connections which went down due to the fire, the Detroit News reported. The office said they are trying to recover the phone lines of Farmington Hills, Novi and Troy police departments. The sheriff's office said that until communications are restored, calls are being redirected to what they call Public Safety Answering Points.

The texting service to 911 is still available, and alternate numbers which can be reached till 911 phone services are down are as follows:
- (248) 858-4930

- (248) 454-0562

-(248) 454-0564

-(248) 454-0565

-(248) 454-0454

-(248) 454-0531

-(248) 454-0532

-(248) 454-3431

UPDATE: 12:49 a.m. EST — According to reports by WDID-TV, a CBS-affiliated news organization, officials confirmed it was a Consumers Energy main which caught fire. Both the county sheriff's office officials and the people from Consumers Energy are there at the scene of the incident. Consumers Energy spokeswoman Debra Dodd said, "All I can tell you right now is that we did notice that there was a pressure drop on our natural gas system indicating that there was an issue somewhere." She added, "We do have crews on site, but obviously with the amount of the flames, we can't get very near right now. Our first priority is to keep the public and our customers safe."

The Oakland County Sheriff's Office said that 911 lines are down due to the fire. Traffic congestion has taken place due to the area being sealed off for safety reasons. Dodd said, "We have alarms on our system that indicate if pressure drops below a certain point, and that's what we noticed earlier tonight." She continued, "Some crews are there, and additional crews are coming."

The Auburn Hills police who tweeted earlier to order evacuations from the area, have now posted an update saying that the evacuations are no longer "mandatory" and that people who are living in and around the area can go back to their homes. However, they did caution the people to avoid coming near the scene of the incident.

Original Story:

A huge fire erupted late Monday night in Auburn Hills, Oakland County, Michigan, which the county sheriff's office said was due to a gas line explosion.

Auburn Hills police have cautioned the people to avoid the area where the incident took place. They posted a tweet which said the following:

The Oakland County Sheriff's Office confirmed the reason of the incident through a tweet, though some Twitter users assumed the same in earlier tweets.

Auburn Hills police posted a tweet giving out information regarding evacuations which are taking place.

One of the residents of Auburn Hills, Avery Bills, posted a tweet stating the reason for the gas line explosion. He said construction workers who were working to build a new Menards store (a home improvement store), broke the gas line which resulted in the huge explosion.

According to an Oakland Press news report from May 2016, it was reported that Brown Road would be expanded in order to attract Menards and other businesses.

Here are some of the tweets which are making the rounds regarding the incident.

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