Explosion levels Baltimore homes, kills 1 and traps others
A “major” gas explosion ripped through three homes in the Reisterstown Station neighborhood in Northwest Baltimore, killing one woman and seriously injuring at least two others, Baltimore Fire officials said Monday.
At least four people were hospitalized with serious injuries as firefighters searched for more survivors. Four of the homes’ occupants were taken to hospitals in serious condition, while an adult woman was pronounced dead at the scene, a fire spokeswoman said. Rescuers were painstakingly going through the wreckage by hand. About two hours after the explosion, a line of firefighters removed a person on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance.
The explosion occurred before 10 a.m. at Reisterstown and Labyrinth roads, just behind Reisterstown Plaza shopping center. The exact cause of the explosion was not immediately clear. Baltimore Police warned people to avoid the area, as the gas leak is still active.
Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. spokesperson Richard Yost said the company received a call from the fire department around 9:54 a.m. asking crews to respond to the scene.
“We are on the scene and working closely with the fire department to make the situation safe,” Yost said. “Crews are working to turn off gas to the buildings in the immediate area. Once the gas is off we can begin to safely assess the situation including inspections of BGE equipment.”
One person was buried from the neck down, and another was sheltering in a closet when Kevin Matthews, an Occupational Safety and Health Administration building inspector who lives in the block, arrived around 10 a.m.
Matthews, who has lived on Labyrinth Road for 28 years, said he could hear shouting from children trapped: “Come get us! We’re stuck!”
When he walked up the front steps, he realized the house had been completely razed. A long crack ran between the destroyed house and the one next door.
“I could see the back alley from the front stoop,” Matthews said. “We moved out of the way and let the firemen handle it.”
Some area residents reported feeling the blast several miles away. Neighbors reported having their windows blown out and doors blasted off the hinges.
Moses Glover was inside his nearby home in the 4200 block of Labyrinth Road when he heard a boom and looked outside his window. Suddenly, a second blast knocked the 77-year-old off of his feet, he said.
“It knocked me across the bed,” Glover said. “I came downstairs and saw all of the front of the houses across the street, they were on the ground. I had a picture window downstairs, the glass is in the chair now.”
Moses struggled to steady his breathing and said he was “shook up” by the experience.
Jordan Ciesielczyk-Gibson, 31, who lives about a mile away from where the explosion occurred, was in bed Monday morning when he was startled by the loud blast.
“I heard the boom, and I was like, ‘what was that?’ Then, the whole house shook,” said Ciesielczyk-Gibson, “It all happened so fast.”
The explosion destroyed the home of Major Watkins Jr., 88, and Caroline Youngblood, 90. Watkins, a U.S. Army artillery veteran, said the blast “sounded like Korea.”
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said in a tweet that he was “closely monitoring” the situation.
“We are closely monitoring the situation in northwest Baltimore following this morning’s horrific explosion,” he said. “We have reached out to offer our full support to the ongoing response and recovery efforts, and are deeply grateful to the first responders on the scene.”
While the exact cause of the blasts are not immediately clear, many Baltimore-area gas lines are in serious need of repair, The Sun reported last year.