The explosion in the Bremerton suburb was so severe it blew firefighters who were on the scene about 20 feet back.
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The Tuesday night blast critically injured the gas company worker minutes after the acting hotel manager evacuated the building because she could smell and hear a gas leak.
Thirteen hotel units and a laundry room were leveled by the explosion, which occurred at 8:24 p.m. Tuesday, about a half-hour after a gas leak had been reported there.
“All my stuff is completely blown up”, Warren Henry said.
“My good instinct says we have to evacuate”, Hinds said.
“There was a huge explosion that sent a shock wave … shook our house, cracked our windows and tossed me out of bed”, said Amy Delany, who lives nearby. Police say everyone at the hotel, including gas crews and hotel workers, were being evacuated at about 8:30 p.m. when the building exploded. “It’s all gone”, said one victim. It wasn’t clear whether the three were inside the building when the blast happened, he said.
A gas company employee on scene trying to fix the leak was badly burned and transported to a local hospital.
Bremertown is a town of about 39,000 people that’s about a one-hour ferry ride away from Seattle.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with our employee and his family”, Eric Martuscelli, vice president of operations for Cascade Natural Gas, said in a statement.
“We don’t know what caused the explosion at this point”, she said.
The blast demolished part of the building but no guests were reported injured.
Hinds said the motel had about 65 guests in 42 occupied rooms, and the blast destroyed about one-quarter of the building. “It could have been worse”, said Duke, fighting back tears. One firefighter suffered bruised ribs, and the other had a concussion, Duke said.
“We’re still checking on that”.
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This story has been corrected to add a dropped word to the third paragraph to say the missing guests were not caught in the explosion.
