21 injured in explosion at Texas hotel thought to be accident

At least 21 people were injured in an explosion that was most likely caused by a gas leak and substantially damaged a hotel in downtown Fort Worth on Monday afternoon, authorities said.

One person was in critical condition and two were in serious condition, Craig Trojacek, a spokesperson for the Fort Worth Fire Department, said at a news conference. Eight others had minor injuries, he added. Authorities learned about the additional injuries later, including one person who went to a hospital on their own.

Earlier, authorities had said one person was missing, but they noted later that the person had been found.

Initially, authorities said it was unclear what caused the explosion at the Sandman Signature hotel, which occurred about 3:30 p.m., although Trojacek said there was “a smell of gas in the area.”

“We were getting reports that it had started in the restaurant,” Trojacek said, adding that a restaurant at the hotel was under construction. “We’re not 100% sure that that’s where it actually started at this point.”

Later, the Fort Worth Fire Department said on social media the explosion had most “likely” been caused by a gas leak, but that officials were waiting to confirm that.

A spokesperson for Atmos Energy, which provides natural gas to North Texas, said the company was looking into the explosion.

Video footage and images from the scene showed substantial damage to the ground floor of the hotel, a new facility housed in a historic century-old building, and debris littered across the street.

Christian Alvarez, 25, who works at the Pink Cobra, a tattoo parlor two blocks from the hotel, said he felt the shop shake on Monday afternoon. Alvarez said he and two other co-workers walked outside and saw smoke pluming down the street.

“It was pretty gnarly,” Alvarez said. Kevin Martinez, a manager at a CVS store nearby, said the windows of the store had reverberated for a couple of seconds after an initial blast. Some of his co-workers assumed the sound was thunder, as a line of storms had moved through earlier in the day, Martinez said.

“I said, ‘No, no it’s not,’ ” he added. “I thought it was a bomb.”