Death Toll From Silver Spring Apartment Block Fire Rises to 3

Investigators combing through the debris and rubble left by an explosion that rocked a Silver Spring apartment complex on Sunday have found the remains of a fifth victim, authorities said. Yesterday, public safety personnel located the bodies of two individuals within the apartment building. The body has been taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore, where three other bodies found at the scene Thursday and Friday were transported. The victims have not been identified.

Search and recovery efforts will continue on Saturday, according to police. It remained unclear how many people were missing, though authorities earlier this week said some five to seven residents were unaccounted for.

The cause of the fatal incident has not been established yet.

The joint investigation between the Montgomery County Police Department, the Department of Fire and Rescue Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is ongoing.

The blast erupted late Wednesday just before midnight, and a fire raged for two hours.

Thirty-one residents and three firefighters were transferred to local hospitals with non life-threatening injuries, officials said at the news conference. Although the fire was brought under control around 1:30 a.m., there was significant structural damage to the apartment building. Police did not release the identities of the dead and said an unknown number of residents are still unaccounted for.

“The building, the whole apartment, the whole block is on fire”, another caller said.

Ogren says crews will be searching for those still missing and looking into the cause of the blast.

“It’s a collapse hazard, which is a risky situation for the personnel”, acting county fire chief David Steckel said.

“People were dropping children and jumping out of other windows”, Goldstein said.

Police said an unknown number of residents remain unaccounted for. While Montgomery County is one of the nation’s wealthiest communities, the neighborhoods inside the Capital Beltway in this section of Silver Spring are working-class areas, home to large numbers of Central American immigrants.

The Red Cross set up a shelter at the nearby Long Branch Community Center to help.