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Thursday, August 11, 2016

Dozens Hurt, Some Unaccounted For After Explosion, Gas-Fed Fire In Silver Spring

SILVER SPRING, Md. (WJZ/AP)– At least 30 people were injured, including three firefighters, after a massive gas-fed blaze ravaged an apartment complex in Silver Spring early Thursday morning, according to Pete Piringer, chief spokesperson for Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service.

Five to seven people are still unaccounted for, and 90 people have been displaced.

Piringer says more than 160 firefighters responded after a “possible explosion” sent a four-level building at the Flower Branch Apartments up in flames in the 8600-8700 block of Piney Branch Road in Silver Spring just before midnight. Firefighters in a nearby station even heard the explosion.

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

One thing I could never understand about Salisbury. A lot of apartment communities here opt for gas heat and hot water, which only runs the risk of these types of incidents happening. Pilot lights can go off during the day, killing household pets if unattended while people work. Natural Gas is more dangerous than electricity and the landlords here in Salisbury continue to utilize a dangerous form of energy. This fire is just proof and point why using gas is just foolish, especially in multifamily dwellings. Sure it may be cheaper for landlords to implement, but is it? Wrongful death, negligence and a whole host of lawsuits that follow these types of tragedies, should be a deterent to using sch a dangerous form of energy.

PCL said...

RE: Anonymous: Gas is much cheaper than any other form of heat and it need not be dangerous. My townhouse-condo has a separate boiler house and the hot water is piped all over the complex, so there is no gas running to each unit. We pay less for heat than for water and it's quiet and even. What I don't understand is whey any complexes allow gas stoves and/or dryers; they involve gas piped all over the building and in newer buildings, that's in flexible hoses that can be punctured by anyone hanging a picture. I don't know what happened here, but it sounds as if these buildings were always badly maintained. Condolences for the dead and injured.

Anonymous said...

12:30 PM clearly you do not know how capitalism works... It is about making money, any way they can... Cheaper crap at higher cost and so on and so on... They know this can and could happen, just like a fire with electricity... They chalk it up to doing business and count on sometimes this stuff will happen, but they know most of the time, it won't happen versus when it will... SO yes they kind of play a gambling game, but as I said, it is all about money...

Anonymous said...

They are still trying to figure out what caused the explosion. It might not have been the gas. It could have been a meth lab but the fire was fueled by the gas after the explosion. Silver Spring used to be a nice town back in the day. It is filled with minorities now many of them illegal.

Anonymous said...

Once you cook with gas,you will never want to go back to electric again.Sure it can be unsafe,but electricity causes fires too.

lmclain said...

The CIA (and the KGB, and M-5, etc.) have downed airplanes with passengers to kill ONE person.
They don't give a rat's ace about the lives of people they've never met and will never know.
If they wanted to get to the democratic staffer, they HAD to come up with something other than three bullets in everyone's back.
Is this all truly meaningless? Her supporters will cheer her on even if a murder weapon with her fingerprints on it was found in her briefcase.
That kind stupidity is hard to beat.
keep cheering.