Home explosion near Washington DC kills one firefighter and injures 11
One firefighter was killed and nine others were injured on Friday when an explosion in a Washington DC suburb leveled a home where they were investigating a gas leak. Two other people were also injured.
The firefighters were called to the home in Sterling, Virginia, by a report of a gas smell shortly after 7.30pm and a fiery explosion took place about 30 minutes later, officials said.
The blast and fire occurred while firefighters were inside the building, James Williams, the assistant chief of operations for the Loudon county fire and rescue department, said at a news conference.
“Soon after arrival, with firefighters inside, the house did explode,” Williams said.
One firefighter was killed while nine firefighters and two others were taken to hospitals with injuries ranging from limited to severe, Williams said.
“We have all firefighters out of the building. The fire will continue to smolder,” Williams said.
He described damage to the home as “total devastation”. Investigators later found a 500-gallon underground propane tank at the home that had exploded, NBC News reported, citing officials.
“There’s a debris field well into the street and into the neighboring homes,” he said.
Williams said the cause of the fire was under investigation.
In a post on X, the Sterling volunteer fire company said its crews had responded to a report of a gas leak before the blast.
A neighbor, John Padgett, told the local news outlet WJLA that he had smelled gas while walking his dog earlier.
The blast shook his home, he said.
“It looked like an inferno,” and insulation from the burning home fell like ash, he added. “It was horrific. It looked like something out of a war zone.”
Sterling is about 22 miles (35km) north-west of Washington DC.