STERLING, Va. — One firefighter was killed and nine others were injured when an explosion in a Washington, D.C., suburb on Friday leveled a home where they were investigating a gas leak. Two other people were also injured.
The firefighters were called to the home in Sterling, Virginia, by a report of a gas smell shortly after 7:30 p.m. and a fiery explosion took place about 30 minutes later, fire officials said.
The blast and fire occurred while firefighters were inside the building, James Williams, assistant chief of operations for Loudon County Fire and Rescue, said at a news conference.
“Soon after arrival, with firefighters inside, the house did explode,” Williams said.
One firefighter was killed, while nine firefighters and two others were taken to hospitals with injuries ranging from limited to severe, Williams said.
The firefighter killed was identified as 45-year-old Trevor Brown, a volunteer with Sterling Volunteer Fire Company. Brown was married with three children and had been with the county firefighting services since 2016, Loudoun Fire and Rescue System Chief Keith Johnson said
“We lost a family member," Johnson said Saturday. "We lost one of our own. Quite frankly we’re lucky we only have one fatality. Our folks were in that house when it exploded. They did what they had to do.”
Johnson said investigators have not determined the cause of the explosion, but “we can assume it was propane-related.” He said the 500-gallon tank, located outside the house, had leaked the fuel into the house.
“We have all firefighters out of the building. The fire will continue to smolder,” Williams said.
He described damage to the home as “total devastation.”
“There’s a debris field well into the street and into the neighboring homes,” he said.
Williams said the cause of the fire was under investigation.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the Sterling Volunteer Fire Company said its crews had responded to a report of a gas leak before the blast.
A neighbor, John Padgett, told ABC7 News that he had smelled gas while walking his dog earlier.
The blast shook his home, he said.
“It looked like an inferno,” and insulation from the burning home fell like ash, he added. “It was horrific; it looked like something out of a war zone.”
Sterling is about 22 miles (35 kilometers) northwest of Washington, D.C.