A third body was found Friday afternoon as fire officials and investigators worked the scene of the deadly blast and fire in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Silver Spring, Montgomery Police said.
Advertisement
Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Dan Ogren said Friday that the bodies from the two confirmed deaths have been taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for autopsies and identification.
Witnesses described the explosion like a bomb going off, and people more than a mile away reported their homes shaking.
Police said an unknown number of residents remain unaccounted for. Still, others have questioned whether building maintenance may have played a role. He said investigators have accounted for 110 residents of the buildings. The explosion and fire destroyed two four-story apartment buildings, injuring 34 people, including three firefighters, and displacing more than 90 residents.
The community came together Friday to organize the donations collected to help the victims of the Silver Spring apartment explosion.
“Investigators are still working to identify the missing people from this event”. “We do not have a number at this time”. The Red Cross said 60 families who are displaced will likely need help for some time.
About 150 firefighters rushed to the scene, where several residents had to be rescued from the upper floors.
Anyone seeking to locate loved ones from the complex can receive immediate assistance at the nearby Rolling Terrace Elementary School in Takoma Park, officials said.
Investigators still aren’t sure exactly how many people are missing after Wednesday’s explosion and fireball at the complex in Silver Spring, Md. The Montgomery County Police Department, the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) are jointly investigating.
While the cause of the explosion remains under investigation, tenants had made complaints about the smell of gas in recent weeks, including on July 25.
Search efforts were expected to resume on Saturday morning. “Our thoughts are with the families impacted by this event”, the company said in a statement to ABC News on Thursday. “My mom said, ‘Wake up because there’s a fire, ‘ the whole apartment shook, there was fire – big flames”.
Firefighters on a ladder truck spray water on the still-smoldering remains of a structure after an explosion and fire in the Flower Branch Apartments complex, on August 11, 2016 in Silver Spring, Maryland.
About 100 residents displaced by the fire are being held out by the American Red Cross.
Advertisement
In another call, sirens can be heard in the background as a man frantically tells the dispatcher the address of the apartment.
