A massive explosion at an apartment building in Silver Spring, Maryland, left over a dozen people injured. Officials said that ten people had to be hospitalized and that five of those people suffered serious injuries in the blast.
The apartment complex is less than a mile north of Washington, D.C.
Firefighters responded to the building just after 10:30 a.m. and began working to extinguish the flames and rescue people who were trapped inside. The apartment complex consists of multiple buildings, which were all evacuated as a precaution.
There were around 150 firefighters on the scene, and it took them several hours to get the two-alarm blaze under control.
WTTG reporter Stephanie Ramirez spoke with a 13-year-old girl who said she smelled gas before the explosion.
Authorities said that officials from the utility company are on-site but cautioned that it will take some time to determine the cause of the explosion because the remaining structure of the building is unstable.
"It is too early for me to say what initiated this. We are working through a wide range of concerns and possibilities are focus is on life safety at this time," Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said.
One witness had to hold back tears as he watched his grandmother getting wheeled away in a stretcher by paramedics.
"I was scared for my grandma. I was worried. I rushed over here as fast as I could to make sure my grandma was OK," TJ Hall told WUSA. "I still have friends that are trapped in the building right now; the whole building collapsed and came down."
A neighbor's security camera captured the moment the building exploded.