Dallas chief says firefighters were preparing to evacuate residents when apartment building exploded

DALLAS (AP) — Firefighters responding to reports of a gas leak had arrived at a Dallas apartment building and were preparing to evacuate residents when it exploded in a massive fireball, killing three people and injuring several more, the city’s fire chief said Friday.

Dallas Fire-Rescue Chief Justin Ball said the first responders did “everything they were supposed to do” and were about to enter the building to remove residents when the explosion happened. No firefighters were injured, Ball said during a news conference.

Officials do not expect to find any more victims in the charred rubble of the apartment building in the Oak Cliff neighborhood south of downtown Dallas, he said.

“There is nobody unaccounted for or we’d still be searching,” Ball said.

The explosion Thursday afternoon shook nearby homes and the resulting inferno razed the two-story complex. A child and two other people were killed and at least five people were injured and sent to hospitals, Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesperson Jason Evans said late Thursday.

It was unclear how many residents lived there but Ball said the complex contained 22 apartments.

Several blocks of streets around the explosion site were still closed off by police cars and police tape Friday. The smell of smoke lingered over the area as law enforcement officials and workers in bright yellow vests circled the rubble of what was once the apartment building.

The National Transportation Safety Board said a team of eight investigators would arrive by Friday afternoon. The agency investigates gas pipeline accidents, and said that initial reports indicated a contractor had damaged an underground gas pipeline.

Atmos Energy, a natural gas provider, also said in a statement they were told by fire officials that a construction crew unrelated to the company had damaged a pipeline near the site of the fire. The company did not provide further details.

Natural gas service to the area remained shut off, and company officials were working with investigators on-site, the company said.

An attorney for the apartment owner said the building was being sold to a buyer who planned to build a new housing unit, and that an engineering firm hired by that company struck the gas line while doing soil testing.

“The owner is shocked by this outcome and likewise mourns this outcome,” attorney Geoff Henley said. “We still do not know how many perished in this fireball.”

Sherry Woods, who lives in an apartment across an alleyway from the fire site, said Friday she was sitting outside her front door when she and her boyfriend smelled what they believed to be gas.

Moments later, the explosion nearly knocked her down.

“All you heard was ‘boom.’ I shook like something was hitting me. It was scary to hear something like that. I felt the building shake,” Woods said.

Authorities set up a family reunification center at a nearby high school. Several hours after the blaze, Frances Rizo was still trying to find her friend who lived in the building.

“She’s not answering her phone,” Rizo said.

Trish Thompson surveyed the site from across a grassy field Friday morning and could see the gap on the block where the apartment complex stood just 24-hours earlier.

Thompson, who lives nearby, described hearing a “loud rumble, something more like a train to me” and seeing smoke and fire.

“Pray for them,” Thompson said.

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Associated Press journalist Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas, contributed.