A half dozen stores were totally blown out after an explosion went off at a busy strip mall.
Kelly McPherson reports the blast happened early Thursday afternoon at the Penn Mar Shopping Center in Forestville, Prince George's County.
That's where fire crews received reports of a natural gas leak.The people who witnessed it say it was something they had never seen or felt before. Six doors were all blown out. "Shook, shook everything! Boom," said a witness. "We could feel it vibrate. I jumped," said another. "The power went out, so we got the customers out, and the next thing I know, the police were telling us to evacuate the entire strip mall," said a worker. The owner of the pizza shop there called in the leak. "The gas was smelling, and the gas was coming from the underground, you know. Then I called everybody like Washington Gas," said Mohammad Siddique, pizza shop owner. The gas leak had already been called in.
Jeanette Zak, a board member of the Forestville Pregnancy Center next to the strip mall, called 911 to report the leak. She said she watched from her car as firefighters tried to get into a vacant storefront next to the center. Then the store exploded.
"I could feel the heat from my car ... and kind of the whoosh of the air," Zak said. Both firefighters and officials from the gas company had already arrived when it exploded.
Eight firefighters and a gas company worker were hurt in the explosion.The gas company employee who was hurt was working on a gas line at the time of the blast. "Firefighters and one gas company employee, they vary from serious second-degree burns to minor injuries. All have been taken to Washington Hospital Center's burn unit for evaluation," said Mark Brady, Prince George's Fire Department.
"It was quite horrific seeing the building blow away from you, seeing debris fly at you, seeing personnel scurrying about the ground. I'm worried about whether I've got personnel under the debris, whether or not any walls have fallen on them. It was quite humbling," said Kenneth McSwain, Prince George's Fire Department.Officials say they doubt there was anything malicious behind the incident and that it was likely some form of an accident. "We've ruled out anything sinister or suspicious," Brady said. Meanwhile, Zak said she felt fortunate that she called 911 in time and no one at the center was hurt. Ordinarily, clients would have been receiving counseling, but the counselor who works Thursdays had a medical appointment. Zak speculated the gas leak might have been caused by recent renovations in the empty storefront.
