Help Silver Spring Apartment Explosion Victims Through Donations

SILVER SPRING, MD — Residents looking to help those affected by a Silver Spring apartment explosion Thursday morning can donate on a page set up by Making Home Possible, a Montgomery County organization that aims to help people find affordable housing.

"A March 3 fire and explosion devastated the Friendly Garden Apartments on Lyttonsville Road in Silver Spring, causing serious injuries, displacing residents, and destroying multiple apartments," the donation page on Making Home Possible's website says. "Many residents evacuated carrying very little or nothing."

Residents looking to donate can find that page here.

"While Friendly Garden Apartments is not one of MHP’s properties, we maintain close ties with the community through the many affordable housing properties we have developed in Montgomery County, our preschool and after-school homework clubs, and our neighborhood development work," Making Home Possible wrote on its page.

As of Thursday afternoon, more than a dozen of the apartment's residents had been hospitalized and others were unaccounted for, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Chief Scott Goldstein said at a news conference.

"Our focus is to remain here until everyone is accounted for," said Goldstein at the news conference.

Three apartment buildings' residents have been displaced as a result of the explosion.

"There is an active investigation as to the cause of the fire, and MCFRS will provide updates when they are available," said County Executive Marc Elrich in a statement. "Our thoughts are with all those who have been impacted by this horrible and tragic event."