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A convenience store next to a day care center was destroyed on Jan. 18 when a gas leak led to a tricky fire in the 1200 block of Marion Barry Avenue SE, prompting a lengthy battle that took hours to get under control.
DC Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly, Sr. said that the agency received an emergency call about an outside gas leak, with units arriving to investigate shortly after 9:30 a.m. on Thursday morning.
First responders were quickly able to locate the source of the gas leak - a meter in the front of the building that investigators believe may have been struck by a car during normal operations in the area, causing the damage.
Unable to fix the leak until utility crews arrived to cut the gas, firefighters were proactive in evacuating the buildings in the area, including the day care, where there were more than a dozen children inside.
"Everyone is safe," Donnelly said. "We evacuated (the day care) right away and 16 children are safe and reunited with their families.
"That decision to evacuate saved lives," he continued. "Our crews noticed that the meter was damaged and you could smell the gas immediately.
Twenty-five minutes after the initial 911 call, there was an explosion in the two-story building that knocked out the windows on the second floor, sparking a flash fire, Donnelly said, prompting a call for additional units at the scene.
While working on the first floor of the building, officials said that there was a secondary explosion in the convenience store, which knocked it down while neighboring buildings suffered fire, smoke, and other damage.
Remarkably, only one person was taken to the hospital for treatment of a minor injury after being struck by debris that was sent flying into the area by the first explosion.
"The building where the primary explosion (happened) was leveled, and the adjacent building with the day care on the bottom floor ... The op floor experienced significant damage," Mayor Muriel Bowser added.
"When I saw the building, my mouth fell open, because if the children had been in that building, they very definitely would have been impacted by that explosion."
At around 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, officials said that the fire was under control, and crews were still at the scene to begin cleaning up at the scene and to knock down any hot spots.
"We're grateful to the firefighters who made the necessary and great decision to remove everyone," Bowser added. "We (now) want to let the adjacent businesses and tenants of those buildings know that they may be impacted by the gas shut off."
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