What to Know
An apparent explosion and fire ripped through an apartment building in Silver Spring, Maryland, Thursday morning.Three people were seriously injured and several people are missing, fire officials said.About 100 residents of the Flower Gardens Apartments complex are displaced because three buildings were deemed unsafe after the explosion and fire.
At least 10 people were taken to hospitals, and several more are missing, after an explosion and fire obliterated apartments in Silver Spring, Maryland, Thursday morning, officials said.
Flames shot through the roof of the Friendly Garden Apartments on Lyttonsville Road about 10:30 a.m. after an enormous boom alarmed residents throughout the area.
Three people were seriously hurt and seven others have injuries ranging from “moderate to minor,” Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said at an afternoon press conference. Goldstein said “several” people were unaccounted for, but that he couldn’t give an exact number.
Three of the apartment complex’s six buildings were declared unsafe, and about 100 residents of those buildings are displaced, Goldstein said. The chief said he hoped to be able to allow residents of the other three buildings back inside their homes by the evening.
By the early evening, firefighters were still actively searching the area for anyone who could be stuck in the rubble, but were limited to certain areas due to safety concerns, Goldstein said. Heavy equipment is on its way that will allow them to remove some of the unstable rubble that’s preventing them from being able to search the entire area, he said.
Some witnesses said they smelled gas around the time of the explosion. Goldstein said the fire department had not received any calls about gas concerns or gas leaks at the apartment complex this year.
Video, which can be seen in the video player above, shows the vibration of the explosion. The rumble sounds as though a rocket blasted off. Then, a massive gray cloud of debris with bright orange flames shooting through it takes over an entire section of building from ground to roof. When the sound of the explosion stops, it’s replaced by a woman’s screams.
Steven Inman had just returned from the gym and was preparing meals in his family’s house nearby when he heard and felt a powerful explosion, he said. He ran outside and saw the collapsed building.
“The first thing I saw was a woman and her child, screaming, saying that she can’t get out,” he recounted. “I told her, ‘Try to climb out.’ Then I saw the infant. So I was like, ‘Just throw me the baby. Don’t worry — I’ll catch her.’ I caught the baby.”
More than two hours after the explosion, up to 150 fire personnel continued to battle “deep fire,” Goldstein said, and searches for survivors were ongoing.
“It was kind of horrifying. I mean, when you look at a building and see it gutted with the walls down and all the debris piled up, all I could think is, ‘What happened to the people?’ Hopefully, they’re at work. If they were home, you got to ask yourself, like, what happened to them?” Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich said.
One section of the building is gone — apparently leveled into a pile of blackened, smoldering wreckage. Images show a brick corner of the building standing in front of ruins. Goldstein said crews were able to help some people escape before the building was consumed by fire and collapsed.
The roof blew off from another section of the building, exposing residents’ homes. Chopper4 footage shows debris including personal items, window screens, bed frames, a bathtub and building materials strewn around. The debris extends 50 to 70 feet from the building, Chopper4 reporter Brad Freitas said.
The Friendly Garden Apartments includes multiple buildings, and residents are evacuated from units adjacent to the blaze. There may be significant structural damage, and up to 40 people could be displaced in each building, Goldstein said.
Firefighters made several rescues and were seen using cherry pickers to pull people from upper-level windows. Others were spraying water onto the smoldering apartments from above.
The fire was so powerful that Freitas said he could feel its heat through the helicopter’s windows.
Medics could be seen wheeling people away on stretchers.
A young man who said he lived in the building fought tears as he looked at the wreckage. He had held the hand of a woman being taken away on a stretcher.
“I’ve still got friends trapped in the building,” T.J. Hall said, beginning to cry.
Hall said he left the building earlier Thursday and had smelled something.
“When I left this morning, I told my grandma, ‘It smells like gas,’” Hall said.
Goldstein says it’s too early to know what caused the explosion and fire.
Utility companies Pepco and Washington Gas also were on the scene, Goldstein said, along with representatives from all Montgomery County agencies.
A man who lives nearby said he heard and felt a powerful explosion. He thought it was an earthquake or that something had hit his house.
“All of the sudden, I felt this boom,” Larry Stewart said. He went outside, saw the horrific fire and heard screaming.
Andre Kinard said he lives across the street from the Friendly Garden Apartments and said several units were “blown away.”
“The first thing was that big boom. I could actually feel it on my back, and it made me come out of my work shed,” he said. “That’s when I saw everything to smithereens, and then the first two or three people screaming.”
He said his adult son pulled people out of the burning building, including a child and a woman with serious burns, and that his son was shaken by the experience.
“These are really good people around here. People from all over the world live in this building,” Kinard said. “I hope that we didn’t leave anybody behind.”
Thick plumes of gray smoke continue to billow from the scene. Vehicles in the parking lot appeared damaged.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said his office has been in touch with Montgomery County officials and offered assistance from the state’s first responders.
Elrich said the county would support the residents for “as long as necessary.”
“They can’t just pick up and go and find another place. We know there’s an absolute shortage of affordable housing to start with. So, there’s not another place you can just pop these people into. So, we’re going to support them as long as it takes with whatever resources that it takes to do it,” Elrich said.
U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, of Maryland, said in a tweet that he was “profoundly concerned” by the fire.
D.C. Fire and EMS and the Prince George’s County Fire and EMS Department headed to the scene to assist.
People were evacuated from nearby buildings. A bus was seen offering people shelter.
Gusts of wind up to 30 mph may affect firefighters’ response to the blaze, Storm Team4’s Michelle Grossman said.
The site of the fire Thursday is about four miles from where an explosion and fire at the Flower Branch apartments in Silver Spring killed two children and five adults in August 2016. More than 60 people were injured, including three firefighters.
The National Transportation Safety Board determined a failed mercury service regulator and unconnected vent line led to a natural gas leak that accumulated in the building’s meter room until it exploded.
Stay with NBC Washington for more details on this breaking news.
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