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Hash Oil Explosion Suspect Told Police He Learned The Process Online

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4)- A man suspected of starting a hash oil explosion that damaged the apartment he was living in with his two children told police he learned about the process online.

The explosion happened Saturday night at a townhome complex on South Independence Street in unincorporated Jefferson County.

Two small children -- a 3-year-old and an 8-month-old -- were in the townhouse near Littleton when the sheriff's office says their father was cooking hash oil, causing the explosion.

Hash Oil Explosion Map
(credit: CBS)

The explosion happened in the kitchen of the home. The kitchen is located right below the room where the baby was sleeping. A neighbor rushed in and rescued the 4-year-old from the fire.

Corbin Braithwaite (JeffCo Hash Oil Explosion, from JeffCoDA)
Corbin Braithwaite (credit: Jeffco Sheriff)

Both children were taken into protective custody. They were not physically injured.

Police have charged their father, Corbin Braithwaite, with arson and child abuse for making butane hash inside the home.

Cooking hash oil is not necessarily a crime, but when damage is caused and it endangers others such as children in this case, then the police may file charges.

According to court documents, Braithwaite told police he learned how to make hash by watching videos on the internet.

He told officers he would "dumpster dive" to take discarded plant parts from the trash outside of marijuana grow operations.

Braithwaite would then use those stems and stalks to manufacture hash, a concentrated form of marijuana.

Making hash oil often means using butane to extract the psychoactive chemical THC from marijuana. Hash oil reportedly produces a more intense high but the process is highly volatile.

Police found multiple cans of butane, marijuana and what is believed to be methamphetamine in the apartment.

Braithwaite is out of jail on $10,000 bond. He told police he was trying to be careful and didn't smoke in the house around the children.

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