Officials said an explosion destroyed parts of an apartment building complex in the US state of Maryland, injuring at least 14 people and displacing over 200 others. All residents of the four-story building in Montgomery County, only a few kilometres outside of Washington, D.C., have been accounted for, officials told the media on Friday, according to media reports. Three of the injured are in serious condition.
Three of the six buildings in the complex have been ruled hazardous to occupy, according to Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein, as emergency officials continue to search through the debris. According to reports, a maintenance worker accidentally cut a gas line rather than a drainpipe, releasing gas that caused the explosion.
"Until we go through all of the debris and a thorough examination of the structure," Goldstein said, "it is an investigative theory, along with several others." "We can't rule out any of our current theories, and we can't say that's what caused the explosion." On Thursday morning, firefighters arrived on the site and were able to assist several residents in fleeing before the flats were fully consumed by fire and collapsed.
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