Twelve firefighters and two other people were injured in a house fire explosion in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, officials said.Salisbury Fire Chief Bob Parnell said firefighters did not have life-threatening injuries but were getting treated for contusions, concussions and smoke inhalation following the fire Monday evening. Two other people were taken to the hospital, but Parnell said he didn’t know their conditions and couldn’t confirm whether they were in the house at the time of the fire.The explosion happened just before 5 p.m. at a single-family home. The home was engulfed in flames when emergency crews arrived, then it exploded, Parnell said. Parnell said the blast blew out the walls of the house and lifted the roof, which later collapsed. He said it was so powerful that it blew the masks off the firefighters’ faces.”They were doing exactly what firefighters do, exactly what our protocols are for a structural fire of that nature. They were on the roof cutting holes, they were dragging hose lines from the front to the back to extinguish the fire, and they were searching for the occupants,” Parnell said.The explosion sent 11 Salisbury firefighters and one firefighter from Spencer to the hospital. An investigation of the fire and explosion is ongoing.
Twelve firefighters and two other people were injured in a house fire explosion in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, officials said.
Salisbury Fire Chief Bob Parnell said firefighters did not have life-threatening injuries but were getting treated for contusions, concussions and smoke inhalation following the fire Monday evening. Two other people were taken to the hospital, but Parnell said he didn’t know their conditions and couldn’t confirm whether they were in the house at the time of the fire.
The explosion happened just before 5 p.m. at a single-family home. The home was engulfed in flames when emergency crews arrived, then it exploded, Parnell said.
Parnell said the blast blew out the walls of the house and lifted the roof, which later collapsed. He said it was so powerful that it blew the masks off the firefighters’ faces.
“They were doing exactly what firefighters do, exactly what our protocols are for a structural fire of that nature. They were on the roof cutting holes, they were dragging hose lines from the front to the back to extinguish the fire, and they were searching for the occupants,” Parnell said.
The explosion sent 11 Salisbury firefighters and one firefighter from Spencer to the hospital.
An investigation of the fire and explosion is ongoing.
