The explosion at a suburban Washington apartment complex that killed two people also left some missing, and investigators said they are feared dead. Two bodies were recovered Thursday and another one was found Friday.
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Four bodies have been recovered, but officials are unable to identify the victims due to the condition of the bodies. While 110 people from the building are accounted for, at least five people are reportedly still missing.
The search for more victims is resuming this morning.
The explosion at the four-story apartment complex injured more than 30 people, the told a news briefing.
“The whole apartment is on fire, from bottom to top, it blew up, everything’s collapsed”, he said.
(Montgomery County Fire and Rescue via AP). The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was assisting the investigation.
As firefighters arrived on the scene, people had to be rescued from the upper floors of the apartment building while some people even threw kids from balconies in order to escape the blaze. When asked about reports of the smell of gas in the area before the explosion, officials said they are at the preliminary stages of investigation.
Eddie Macario said he lives in the building where the fire started. According to the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service, first responders were dispatched to the scene in Silver Spring just before midnight Wednesday.
Montgomery County police are working alongside federal agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to sift through the site in Silver Spring for clues to the cause of the August 10 blast, they said.
Most of the people hospitalized after a deadly explosion and fire in a Washington D.C. suburb have been released, hospital officials said late Thursday, but investigators still don’t know exactly how many may be missing in the blast.
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Nine hours after the explosion, firefighters on a ladder truck were still using a hose to put out the last of the fire and smoke still was rising from the building. Police later said they don’t have a firm number. Roughly 100 people a night have stayed at a Red Cross shelter established at a nearby community center.
