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A fire and explosion at a mid-rise residential building in Silver Spring, Maryland, Thursday has injured several residents and rendered the building uninhabitable.
The fire at Friendly Garden Apartments, located at 2401 Lyttonsville Road in Silver Spring, caused "multiple injuries/casualties," Pete Piringer, Montgomery County Fire & Rescue's public information officer, tweeted Thursday.
The building has collapsed, and fire officials said dozens of people in the building and surrounding structures would likely be displaced. Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich said he was on the scene.
"My sympathies go out to all affected by this horrible and tragic event," Elrich tweeted. "We are going to do everything we can to get to the bottom of this and help those in need."
The fire started at about 10:30 a.m., WTOP reported. Piringer told WTOP that "he was pretty sure everyone had been accounted for" from the four-story building. Residents told WTOP they heard "a big bang" and smelled gas before the fire broke out.
NEW: Video of the explosion at the Friendly Garden Apartments @nbcwashington pic.twitter.com/KNbBqn0huH
— Cory Smith (@CoryNBC) March 3, 2022
The building is owned by Friends Non Profit Housing, an entity registered to the same address in Columbia, Maryland, as ResidentialONE Property Management, according to Montgomery County property records. Messages left for ResidentialONE weren't immediately returned.
The incident brought back memories for some of a fire and explosion in 2016 at the Flower Branch Apartments complex in Silver Spring that killed seven people. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives later determined a gas leak in the building's utility room caused that explosion.
That same building experienced another fire earlier this year, displacing its residents.
This is a developing story.
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