Silver Spring Apartment Explosion Ruled Accidental, Chief Says

SILVER SPRING, MD — The explosion at a Silver Spring apartment building has been ruled accidental and Montgomery County Fire and Rescue is wrapping up its investigation Monday, Chief Scott Goldstein said.

Goldstein had announced Friday there was a cut gas pipe in the basement of the Friendly Garden apartment building.

A worker in the building Thursday morning was working to fix a clogged drain in an apartment. The worker went into the terrace level of the building, below the affected apartment, cut a pipe that he believed was a drain waste pipe in order to remove the clog, and then he put a cap on the pipe. He then went into the first floor apartment where the plumbing issue occurred with the resident who lived there. A flash fire occurred, injuring the resident. They started to leave the apartment and were in the back stairwell of the building when the explosion happened. The exact source of ignition is not known, said Goldstein.

Fire crews responded to the blast at 10:30 a.m. Thursday and helped residents to evacuate the building. All residents were accounted for by Friday, said Goldstein. Two residents are remaining in the hospital in serious condition from injuries related to the blast.

Fire crews worked over the weekend to ensure that there were no visitors at the apartment building at the time of the blast. No victims were found in the building rubble, said Goldstein Monday afternoon. Dogs trained to find human remains had initially alerted last Thursday and Friday, but after debris was removed there were no more alerts.

They are confident that there was nobody at the front of the building that was a victim of the blast, said Goldstein.

Three buildings are unsafe to occupy, and will remain that way for weeks, Goldstein said Monday.

He urged anyone who ever smells gas in their home to immediately leave and call 911, and not reenter.

How You Can Help

A Montgomery County organization is running a donation page for the victims of the explosion.

"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."
There are also individual GoFundMe pages for individual victims:

• "Silver Spring Apartment building fire"
• "Let's help out Debra & her family"
• "Help Lucy, David rebuild after explosion"
• "Help Karen Linette"