Maryland

Local Crime & Public Safety

Silver Spring apartment explosion sends 10 to hospital, leaves others missing

By Dan Morse, Rebecca Tan and Justin Jouvenal
Yesterday at 11:28 a.m. EST | Updated yesterday at 6:18 p.m. EST



Firefighters at the scene of an explosion at Friendly Garden Apartments in Silver Spring on March 3. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)

A massive explosion and fire leveled a Silver Spring-area apartment building Thursday morning, sending 10 people to the hospital and leaving others missing as authorities searched the smoldering rubble. ... Three people were rushed to the hospital in critical condition, while seven others suffered less serious injuries, Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said at a Thursday afternoon news conference.

Goldstein said several people remained unaccounted for and that K-9s had alerted people might trapped below the collapsed jumble of brick, steel, glass and concrete at the Friendly Garden Apartments.

About 100 people were displaced by the explosion, including 35 in the building that was destroyed in the 2400 block of Lyttonsville Road, Goldstein said. Two other apartment buildings were damaged in the six-building complex and are not safe to inhabit for the time being.

Video captured a thunderous boom at the moment of the explosion, before a plume of smoke and debris shoots skyward. Immediately afterward, chilling screams and wails can be heard from people on the scene. Fire crews and bystanders rushed to rescue a number of people from the billowing flames.

{snip}

Dana Hedgpeth contributed to this report.

By Dan Morse
Dan Morse covers courts and crime in Montgomery County. He arrived at the paper in 2005, after reporting stops at the Wall Street Journal, Baltimore Sun and Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser, where he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He is the author of "The Yoga Store Murder." Twitter https://twitter.com/morsedan

By Rebecca Tan
Rebecca Tan is a reporter working on the local desk in D.C. She previously reported on foreign policy and international affairs for The Post and Vox.com. Twitter https://twitter.com/rebtanhs

By Justin Jouvenal
Justin Jouvenal covers courts and policing in Fairfax County and across the nation. He joined The Post in 2009. Twitter https://twitter.com/jjouvenal