MSN: A massive explosion and fire leveled a Silver Spring apartment complex with a blast that could be felt a mile away, injuring more than 30 people, including three firefighters, and forcing nearly 100 people from two buildings with some residents tossing their children from windows.
Authorities reported no fatalities, but crews shifted into search mode Thursday morning, seeking to account for five to seven residents of the two adjacent buildings at the Flower Branch Apartments on Piney Branch Road. Authorities said there were 14 units in each building.
“People were dropping children and jumping out of other windows,” Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said of the fire. “Everybody was getting out of the building as rapidly as possible.”
Goldstein said during a morning briefing that a K-9 team searching the rubble of the apartment complex had a “hit.” Goldstein said it could indicate someone is trapped in the debris.
Investigators including the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms sought to determine the cause of the inferno that began late Wednesday at the buildings, called 8701 and 8703, which were flattened to street level in some places. It was unclear whether the fire or explosion occurred first.
The blast blew a gaping hole in parts of the buildings, showering fragments of wood, glass and bricks at least 50 yards and echoing up to a mile away. The scene resembled a bomb blast with clothing hanging from nearby trees and shoes scattered in the street.
Clara Mazunder said she woke up to a loud “boom,” looked out her bedroom window and saw flames. The 39-year-old yelled to her two sons, ages 18 and 10, to get out of the apartment.
As she was running out of the building, she frantically pounded on her neighbors’ doors yelling “Fuego. Fuego,” she said, using the Spanish word for fire. MORE
“fuego, fuego”
Nuff said.
Thoughts and prairs for the DC elites, who have to reschedule their yardwork and housekeeping this week.
God bless them.
I hate to sound ungentlemanly, but I don’t care.
Meth explosion?
Meth lab, that’s what I’m thinking too.
I read that there are a lot of non-English speaking type persons living in the area. I recall 0bama sending in illegals last year.
“Mohammad, tell Juan not to light that grass grill so near to the bomb making table.”
We never found out what was up with the bomb that blew off that kid’s foot in NYC.
Or where Noor Zahi Salman went.
Or who the hell that guy is who doses Hillary.
I know we’re in a very lurid presidential campaign, but does the media ever follow up on anything unrelated to Trump?
We shouldn’t jump to conclusions.
It might not be a meth lab – it could easily have been a goat-fucking muslim bomb factory, that is somehow involved in totally not-jihad-related workplace violence or whatever.
@MJA
I know that area fairly well. You would struggle to find someone on the street who speaks english as a first language.
I agree with AC, some of those jihadis aren’t very careful with Mohammad’s family recipe for C4.
“No, no Achmed, it’s 2% dioctyl sebacate and 5% polyisobutylene! As Allah is my witness! Trust me!”
When I was young My Folks would yell ” You’d better not be making a mess in there”
Now it’s “You better be making meth in there”
NatGas + Low IQ = FOOM