The blast ripped through the Potomac Oaks Condominium in the 800 block of Quince Orchard Boulevard near Rabbit Road at about 8:40 a.m. on Wednesday, officials said. Montgomery County Fire & Rescue received multiple calls reporting the explosion and fire, which sent smoke into the air that was visible from miles away. “It felt like we were being bombed,” said one man who felt the blast 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 fire in the basement hours later and continued to battle smoldering hot spots. Videos and images from the scene showed a huge wall of orange flames and a gaping hole after the explosion leveled part of a garden-style apartment building. Smoke choked the gap between two jagged ends of the building that was apparently the site of the explosion. A 50- to 75-foot field of debris and rubble covered the lawn outside the building. Large pieces of bricks and concrete blocks were visible. “I woke up to an explosion out front,” said one man who discovered a steel door had fallen into his living room. The force of the blast was so strong that two people in the area told News4 their bodies were physically shaken by the blast. @brandonsavage The two-alarm fire and explosion on Quince Orchard Boulevard. (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 is yet available on whether anyone else is missing. Fire and rescue crews were working with Washington Gas to shut off the gas, but it was not safe to search for anyone else inside the building at this time, Goldstein said at about 10:40 a.m. Maintenance workers rescued two people from an apartment using ladders before firefighters arrived, Goldstein said. The cause of the fire and explosion has yet to be determined, but Goldstein said there was what appeared to be a “gas-fueled” fire in the basement. After first responders arrived, some residents told them they 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 a call prior to the explosion about the smell of gas. However, it was not yet known if anyone may have contacted Washington Gas, other agencies or building management. Anyone who smells gas at any time should call 911 immediately, Goldstein said. In a statement late Wednesday morning, Washington Gas officials said they were “aware of the incident this morning in Montgomery County, Maryland. Our staff is responding to assist the fire department at the scene. As always, the safety of our customers and community is our top priority. We are supporting a proactive 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 severely damaged and the other two were evacuated. Potomac Oaks resident Traci DiMartini was at her job in the District when friends suddenly started calling her phone Wednesday morning, but when the fire department rang, she learned her home of 19 years was gone. DiMartini, a federal worker who was making a presentation at the time of the explosion, said firefighters were held accountable for residents. Soon after, she said she spoke to her downstairs neighbor, who managed to escape. “He had just come out and I think he was in shock as well,” DiMartini said. DiMartini spoke to News4 as she ran home to see if her cat, Rocky, had somehow survived the blast. She was not optimistic. He is also anxious for answers about what caused the explosion. DiMartini told News4 the neighbor across the hall from her unit was renovating their apartment, though it’s not yet clear if that was connected to the explosion. Another neighbor, who also lost her home but asked News4 not to be identified, also said the unit across the street 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 apartment. “It’s the only home he’s ever known,” she said. This is at least the third apartment building explosion 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 building in Silver Spring 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 just before 9am showed dark smoke rising in the area. Sirens could be heard in the distance. Many roads were closed in the area, which includes apartments, townhouses and commercial areas. 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.
