Roughly half of the 200 residents displaced by Thursday’s explosion that rocked Friendly Garden apartments in Silver Spring, Maryland, have reoccupied the building, according to authorities.
Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service spokesperson Pete Piringer said that those who were able to return to the building have working water, gas and electric utilities. For the residents whose part of the building is still “unsafe to occupy,” Piringer said that they had help receiving medications and personal belongings.
Piringer went on to say that debris on the exterior of the building has been examined and there are no additional canine alerts — meaning that authorities believe everyone is accounted for after the explosion.
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This is a positive sign after Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said Friday that two different dogs trained to detect human remains had twice alerted to the same spot in the rubble.
The investigation into the explosion is ongoing, but one of the theories put forward by fire officials is that a cut gas line found in the building’s rubble may have contributed to the incident.
According to WTOP news partner NBC Washington, a maintenance worker told investigators, from his hospital bed, that he’d been conducting a plumbing repair in the basement utility room.
Per NBC Washington, the man said he was surprised when he cut a pipe, referred to as a line, and no water came out. He then went upstairs to a first-floor apartment to troubleshoot.
Not long afterward the building exploded from the ground up, according to NBC Washington.
Fourteen people were hospitalized immediately after the explosion. Currently, 7 people are still in the hospital, with 3 people in serious condition.
Work will continue on the apartment building Sunday and into the workweek, according to Piringer.
