A House explosion occurred in the Randolph Hills area of Rockville at approximately 1 a.m. Friday morning. After receiving several calls, firefighters were faced with a catastrophic scene on arrival after the house explosion, which leveled one home and damaged several other neighboring homes in Ashley Drive.
According to a spokesman for the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service there had been an apparent gas line explosion, resulting in a subsequent fire in the neighborhood. Pete Piringer said there is a huge debris field and fire damage, which spreads throughout homes in the neighborhood, with much collateral damage to other houses.
Bethesda Magazine quoted Piringer as saying the house where the explosion occurred was a single family home. He added that the house had been turned into a “burning rubble pile” surrounded by the large debris field. That report quotes Fire Chief Scott Goldenstein as saying the explosion was so loud, emergency calls were received from as far away as Bethesda, where residents reportedly also felt the blast.
75 firefighters worked at the scene of the house explosion
Around 75 firefighters worked at the scene to extinguish the fire in around 90 minutes. However, according to Piringer, firefighters are still searching for one resident, who appears to be missing at the explosion site. Firefighters, along with crews from Washington Gas and Pepco, went from door to door in the neighborhood to check for any potential hazards and to estimate the damage caused by the house explosion.
So far, no other injuries have been reported at the scene, but several neighbors had to be relocated.
Exclusive video: Neighbor's surveillance video showing the moment house exploded in Rockville this morning. We are live on @ABC7GMW pic.twitter.com/58o6JVjJJO
— John Gonzalez (@ABC7John) March 17, 2017
House scheduled for foreclosure auction
As reported by WUSA 9, the house was scheduled to go on public auction at the Rockville courthouse on Friday.
That report also stated this isn’t the first time Randolph Hills residents have been woken up by an explosion. Reportedly on May 4, 2011, another home was destroyed in Ashley Drive. That incident was linked to a gas line leak. Reportedly the couple living there was trying to convert their dryer from using gas to electricity, and while they did disconnect the gas, they had not capped the line. The young couple was apparently seriously injured.
