No bodies found in debris of Motel 6 blast; 2 were feared missing

BREMERTON, Wash. — No bodies have been found in the debris of a Bremerton motel gas explosion in which two were feared missing, according to The Associated Press. A gas company employee was critically injured.

QUICK FACTS:

• No bodies found
• 1 injured
• Motel 6 manager being called hero
• A quarter of the motel is destroyed from blast
• Police checking on reports someone accidentally broke gas pipe before explosion

Bremerton Fire Chief Al Duke said on Wednesday that no one was killed in the explosion that destroyed part of a motel in Washington state. Duke says cadaver dogs found no bodies Wednesday in the debris at the Motel 6 in Bremerton. He says two people were unaccounted for, but when authorities pinged their cellphones, they showed up well south of the area of the explosion.

>> PHOTOS: Gas explosion at Bremerton motel

When a guest came into her office Tuesday evening to say a gas line was leaking at the back of the building, Hotel manager Tonya Hinds — a former volunteer firefighter — said she went outside and saw that the leaking line was a big one "with a lot of gas."

“I’m just in my mode right now to get everybody accommodated and taken care of,” said Hinds, who is being called a hero.

"I pulled the alarm and started corralling people away from the building," Hinds said. "I wanted to make sure all my guests were out."

The alarm came in just before 8 p.m., and the fire department and two Cascade Gas employees responded. The explosion came half an hour later, and one of the gas company workers was critically injured and flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with second and third-degree burns..

Flames continued burning hours later, but Bremerton Police Chief Steve Strachan said that was just the gas burning off from the line as the responders tried to get it shut off entirely. Police said firefighters at the scene were blown back 20 feet  during the time of the explosion.

No other injuries were reported.

What may have led up to the explosion

The motel, which reopened last fall after an extensive remodel, had about 65 guests in 42 occupied rooms, and the blast destroyed about one-quarter of the building, Hinds told The Associated Press. She said that one guest reported having seen someone jump out a window of the three-story establishment and land on or near the gas line just before the leak.

Bremerton police are checking on reports that someone accidentally broke the gas pipe before the motel explosion. As the cause still remains undetermined, police are reportedly talking to a woman who may have broken the meter.

The National Transportation Safety Board has recalled their investigators from launching to the Bremerton, Washington, motel gas explosion due to additional information obtained from local officials. This information indicates that the gas meter was likely damaged just prior to the reported gas leak, and as result, would not fall under NTSB jurisdiction to investigate.

Investigators from Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Cascade Natural Gas examine the massive debris from a quarter of  the motel on Wednesday.

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