Fire officials say at least 20 to 25 people, including two firefighters, have been injured in a large fire at an apartment building in a Maryland suburb of Washington.
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Among those injured were three firefighters, treated and released after a large-scale rescue effort in which some people dropped children off balconies in the garden-style apartment to safety below.
Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Chief Scott Goldstein confirmed that the explosion has resulted in the collapse of one building that has yet to be identified.
A video posted by Montgomery County fire spokesman Pete Piringer showed debris from the blast scattered through the street in front of the damaged building, with items of clothing visible high in the branches of a tree. The 39-year-old yelled to her two sons, ages 18 and 10, to get out of the apartment.
“When we arrived on the scene, we found people doing rescues using ladders from construction and paint trucks”, Goldstein said.
Officials from Montgomery County and the American Red Cross set up a temporary shelter at the Long Branch Recreation Center, near the scene of the fire. We went out to the hallway and all the neighbors were getting out, running.
However, because the blast and fire rendered the remaining structure of the apartment complex unstable, firefighters had to pull out before recovering all of the residents believed to be inside.
Many of those initially reported missing in the wake of the blast have since been located at area hospitals or with loved ones, Hamill told reporters at a news briefing.
A man watches as fire fighters look through the debris of a four-story building that was destroyed in an explosion that has left up to seven people missing in Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S., August 11, 2016. It took at least an hour and 45 minutes to put out the blaze and Washington Gas helped safely turn off gas, he said.
Federal explosives experts are helping investigate the explosion. Several people are still missing, officials said. Television footage showed flames and smoke pouring from the building as firefighters rescued a man from an upstairs apartment window.
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Officials said that the explosion displaced nearly a hundred residents and some remain missing. “It was one big boom, like nothing I’d ever heard”, he said.
