Emergency personnel clear items from an apartment building following a fire in Silver Spring, Md., Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.
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Clothing was seen strewn on sidewalk treetops in video footage provided by fire officials.
The bodies of two people were removed from the building Thursday. The three bodies that were recovered have not yet been identified. Most have been released from the hospital.
Search and recovery efforts will resume Saturday morning.
The same message came from Zulma Aparicio, Director of Operations at Mary’s Center of Silver Spring, who said that facility offers mental health counseling, as well as medical assistance. On Thursday, police confirmed two deaths, and more than 30 injuries.
Late last month, fire fighters investigating a complaint about a gas leak at one of the destroyed buildings were not able to find anything amiss. In some cases, more people may have lived in a specific apartment than were listed on the official records.
“A number of people are still within the remains of the building”, he said.
Ogren says crews will be searching for those still missing and looking into the cause of the blast.
“From our investigators, the fire rescue investigators, the ATF investigators, tragically that doesn’t seem that that’s a possibility at this time”, he said.
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. The blast occurred at around 11:50 p.m. Wednesday. Numerous residents, mostly low-income Latinos and Ethiopians, had to flee the burning apartments some with clothes on their backs, others in pajamas or undergarments.
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.
Residents affected by the deadly fire that displaced dozens of families are being told not to worry about coming forward for help. Investigators are still trying to determine the exact cause of the inferno.
In all, 34 people, including the three firefighters, were taken to hospitals for treatment. Police did not release the identities of the dead. Police later said they don’t have a firm number.
Witnesses described the explosion like a bomb going off, and people more than a mile away reported their homes shaking.
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