An explosion and two-alarm fire in Gaithersburg, Maryland, demolished portions of two residential buildings on Wednesday and sent at least 10 people, including four children, to hospitals. Two adults have traumatic injuries, an official said.
The explosion ripped through the Potomac Oaks condominium in the 800 block of Quince Orchard Boulevard near Rabbit Road about 8:40 a.m. Wednesday, officials said. Montgomery County Fire & Rescue received several calls reporting the explosion and fire, which sent smoke into the air that was visible from miles away.
“It looks like they bombed us,” said a man who heard the explosion from his office nearby. “…My heart goes out to everyone.”
The fire raised a second alarm within minutes. While much of the fire was out in about 40 minutes, crews were still battling a gas-fueled fire in the basement hours later and continued to battle growing hot spots.
Video and images from the scene showed a massive wall of orange flames and a gaping hole after the blast leveled part of a garden-style apartment building. Smoke choked the gap between two jagged edges of the building that was apparently the site of the explosion.
A 50- to 75-foot field of rubble and debris covered the lawn outside the building. Large chunks of bricks and cement blocks were visible.
“I woke up to an explosion out front,” said one man who discovered a steel door had been blown into his living room.
The force of the blast was so powerful that two people in the area told News4 their bodies were physically shaken by the blast.
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The fire and explosion on Quince Orchard Boulevard set off two alarms. (Photo: @brandonsavage)
Ten people were taken to hospitals, authorities said. Two adults were seriously injured and rushed to a trauma center, Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said. Eight other people, four children and four adults, had non-life-threatening injuries, Goldstein said.
Other people were evaluated, Fire & Rescue spokesman Pete Piringer said, but the situation was still fluid.
No information was yet available on whether anyone else was missing. Fire and rescue crews were working with Washington Gas to shut off the gas, but it wasn’t safe to search for anyone else inside the building at this time, Goldstein said about 10:40 a.m.
Maintenance workers rescued two people from an apartment with stairs before firefighters arrived, Goldstein said.
The cause of the fire and explosion has not yet been determined, but Goldstein said there was what appeared to be a “gas-fueled” fire in the basement.
When first responders arrived, some residents told them they had smelled gas earlier in the morning.
“The smell of gas this morning had been reported to our investigators,” Goldstein said, but said 911 personnel had not received any calls before the explosion about the smell of gas. However, it was not yet known if anyone may have contacted Washington Gas, any other agencies or the building’s management.
Anyone who smells gas at any time should call 911 immediately, Goldstein said.
In a statement Wednesday morning, Washington Gas officials said they were “aware of the incident this morning in Montgomery County, Maryland. Our personnel are responding to assist the fire department at the scene. As always, the safety of our customers and the community is our highest priority. We are supporting the active response to the incident and have no further details to share at this time.”
It was not immediately known how many people lived in the affected units. Goldstein said the Potomac Oaks complex has four buildings with a total of 24 units. Two of the buildings were heavily damaged, and the other two were evacuated.
Potomac Oaks resident Traci DiMartini was working in the district when friends started calling her phone Wednesday morning, but it wasn’t until the fire department was called that she learned her home of 19 years was gone. .
DiMartini, a federal worker who was giving a presentation at the time of the explosion, said fire officials were called to account for the residents. Shortly after, he said he spoke to his downstairs neighbor, who was able to escape.
“He had just come out, and I think he was in shock, too,” DiMartini said.
DiMartini spoke to News4 as she raced home to see if her cat, Rocky, somehow survived the blast. She had no hope. He’s also anxious for answers about what caused the explosion.
DiMartini told News4 the neighbor across the hall from her unit was renovating her apartment, though it’s not yet clear if that was related to the explosion. Another neighbor, who also lost her home but asked News4 not to be identified, also said the unit across from DiMartini was being renovated by new owners.
DiMartini became emotional as she talked about raising her daughter, who is away at college, in her longtime Gaithersburg condo.
“It’s the only home he’s ever known,” she said.
This is at least the third explosion at an apartment building in Montgomery County in recent years. In 2016, a massive natural gas explosion at the Flower Branch Apartments in Silver Spring killed seven people. Earlier this year, an explosion at another Silver Spring building injured 14 people after a worker accidentally cut a gas line.
People who were nearby at the time of Wednesday’s explosion said on Twitter that they could see smoke from miles away. A video posted by Channing Work shortly before 9 a.m. showed dark smoke rising from the area. Sirens could be heard in the distance.
Several roads were closed in the area, which includes apartments, townhouses and commercial spaces. Nearby Brown Station Elementary School was not affected, but students will be dismissed early Wednesday at 12:30 p.m.
This is a developing story. Stay with NBC Washington for more.