One firefighter is dead, nine others are injured, and two civilians are in the hospital Friday night after a home explosion in Sterling, Virginia.
One firefighter is dead, nine others are injured, and two civilians are in the hospital Friday night after a home explosion in Sterling, Virginia. Their injuries ranged from limited to severe.
Loudoun County officials confirmed the blast, which terrified residents and prompted calls to WTOP.
James Williams, the assistant chief of operations for Loudoun County’s fire department, spoke to reporters about the incident during a press briefing just before 11 p.m.
He said firefighters responded to the scene at around 7:30 p.m. after receiving reports of a fire in the 300 Block of Silver Ridge Drive.
“Soon after arrival, with firefighters inside, the house did explode,” Williams said.
As for the home: “Total devastation. There’s a debris field well into the street and into the neighboring homes,” he told reporters.
Officials did not identify the firefighter killed in the blaze during the press conference but did say the broader community, including peers in nearby jurisdictions, was deeply affected by the incident.
“It’s a huge physical and emotional toll on everyone associated with the fire department. Obviously, the people who are trapped, the rescuers that are going in to try to pull them out, the incident commander,” Williams said.
Officials said the fire will continue to smolder Friday evening, as the department’s fire investigation meets overnight snowfall.
“This is going to be an extended scene complicated by the weather,” Williams said at the conclusion of the briefing.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has joined the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Department as they work to determine what specifically caused the blast.
Community members feel effects of explosion
Footage from WTOP news partners at 7News and Chopper7 showed firefighters and first responders searching the rubble of a home on Silver Ridge Drive in Sterling.
By around 9 p.m., social media users were still trying to figure out what happened, with one person in Sterling saying: “Enormous boom shook the whole house just now. Ran upstairs, outside with flashlights and all the neighbors were doing the same. Apparently, a house exploded on a street nearby.”
According to Sterling’s Volunteer Fire Company, a call came in around 7:38 for a gas leak on Silver Ridge Drive.
John Padgett, a neighbor living just down the road from the explosion, told reporters he smelled gas while walking his dog Friday evening. The explosion, he said, shook the whole house.
“It was a huge explosion,” Padgett said, adding that “it looked like an inferno,” and insulation fell like ash. “It was horrific. It looked like something out of a war zone.”
Another call came in for a report of a structure fire at 8:25 p.m., with an ambulance responding at around the same time.
“A large explosion noise was felt in Cascades/Sterling area at 8:25 pm,” a listener wrote to WTOP. “It shook everyone’s houses to the extent they all shook, and we all thought a tree hit our individual houses.”
WTOP listeners as far away as Montgomery County, Maryland, reported a loud boom at around the same time that the Loudoun County home caught fire.
“Shook houses for 15 miles from Germantown/Gaithersburg/Rockville,” another listener writes.
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Ivy Lyons
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