Building explodes moments after kids evacuated from nearby day care, DC officials say
A group of firefighters are credited with saving more than a dozen lives just moments before a gas explosion leveled a building in Washington, D.C.
Members of the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department were called to the building on the southeast side of the city after reports of a gas leak, D.C. Fire Lt. Ryan Bolton said in a video posted by the department on Facebook.
Bolton said the gas was “flowing freely into the street,” and “if you can smell gas, come outside.”
“When the crew got here they noticed that the meter was damaged. It’s on the outside of the building, and where the damage was was below the above-ground shut off,” Fire Chief John A. Donnelly Sr. said in a video posted by the department on Facebook.
The chief said the firefighters sprung into action and started immediately evacuating the building as well as two others nearby, one of which was a day care.
Moments later, the building was leveled in an explosion, as seen in a surveillance video shared by the fire department on social media.
Firefighters continued to battle the fire as smoke and flames cascaded from the rubble, the video showed.
“Lives were saved by the swift action of the first arriving firefighters at this 2nd alarm gas explosion and fire,” the department said.
Among those were 16 children who were in the nearby day care, NBC reported.
One person was taken to a hospital with minor injuries from flying debris, WKMG reported, but no one was hurt from the fire.
