One person is dead and another is in critical condition after a fire broke out in a high-rise building in a suburb of Washington, DC, early Saturday. Washington Post and other local media reported.
The Post reported that the fire in the city of Silver Spring sent more than a dozen people to the hospital, including three firefighters, and displaced more than 400 residents.
Officials told the newspaper that the fire was reported in an apartment on the seventh floor of the 15-story Arriv building and was estimated to cause $2 million in damage.
Vic Washington, a third-floor resident, told the Post he heard two explosions around 6 a.m.
“It definitely surprised me,” he said. “The alarms were going off. It was very painful.”
Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott E. Goldstein said the cause of the fire is under investigation.
Godstein said authorities are aware of reports of loud booms and believe they may be related to aerosol cans that were in the apartment. He said the fire broke out in an apartment on the seventh floor.