More than 100 residents have been accounted for in the wake of the explosion, which rocked the apartment building Wednesday night, killing three people and injuring dozens of others. Hamill said some people previously thought missing were located, but he said Friday authorities an exact number had not been finalized.
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The bodies of two people were removed from the building Thursday.
Two bodies were found on Thursday.
A third body was recovered Friday following the deadly blaze at a Silver Spring apartment building earlier this week. So far, those killed have not been identified.
Witnesses described the explosion like a bomb going off, and people more than a mile away reported their homes shaking.
Hampering efforts to get to the bottom of what happened is the incinerated building that remains, which authorities have said is unstable.
The joint investigation between the MCPD, the Department of Fire and Rescue Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is ongoing and the possible cause/causes of this fire are still under investigation.
In all, 34 people, including the three firefighters, were taken to hospitals for treatment.
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.
“Our investigators are still working with family and friends of the building’s residents to confirm identities of people who remain missing”, Hamil said.
“Every time you move something, it has the possibility to impinge the structure, so we have to be careful and methodical in how we do it”, Montgomery County Acting Fire Chief Dave Steckel said. “There were, like, people jumping out the window, like screaming for help and kids screaming because a lot of kids were scared”, she told WJLA. Hamill said four detectives were sorting through information Thursday evening trying to determine exactly who is missing following the explosion and fire.
Fire officials say search efforts have been slowed because the building is in danger of collapse and needs to be shored up. While Montgomery County is one of the nation’s wealthiest communities, the neighborhoods inside the Capital Beltway in this section of Silver Spring are working-class areas, home to large numbers of Central American immigrants.
“To basically be in an event where people were blown out of their beds. and what they own is lying across the street, that’s a key difference” from a typical fire evacuation, he said.
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The Red Cross set up a shelter at the nearby Long Branch Community Center to help.
