BREMERTON, Wash. — Surveillance video captured the moment a gas leak at a Bremerton motel sparked a massive explosion. Video showed the blast from two different angles as debris flew into the air and three floors collapsed.
Warren Henry was standing outside along with other guests, evacuated because of the gas leak.
“Something hit me,” said Henry, pointing to a small cut on his hand. "I was looking right at it. Yeah it was a big explosion, very big.”
The blast threw firefighters and gas workers back several feet, injuring one of the gas workers, identified as Larry Jennings, 59. Bremerton Fire Chief Al Duke said Jennings suffered, “a fractured cervical spine, fractured lumbar spine and has burns on his arms, second- and third-degree burns.”
Fire roared through the area where three floors of the motel collapsed into a pile, burying cars, rooms and people's belongings.
“How could this possibly happen, right?” said motel guest Keith Dalton. “The building is so damaged it’s like being in a war zone.”
Three people were reported missing after the blast. One was located early Wednesday morning; two others hadn’t been located as of Wednesday evening, but Bremerton firefighters said they're certain they're not buried in the rubble.
“Because we’ve gone through the whole pile here,” said chief Duke, pointing to the debris. “We’ve brought cadaver dogs about three times to go through the whole pile and they’re very accurate.”
Evacuated guests huddled under a tent for shade in the hot afternoon sun, eating pizza brought by the Red Cross. They were finally allowed to go into the motel and get their belongings late Wednesday.
Warren Henry said his things are buried in the debris. “I mean, my computer, my phone, everything is gone. Everything I had.”
Investigators look for cause of motel gas explosion
Gas pipelines are regulated by the Washington State Utilities and Transportation Commission and it has an investigator at the scene of the explosion.
A UTC spokeswoman told us the investigator reported a break in a three-quarter-inch steel riser line between the gas meter and the pipeline.
Bremerton police say they were called to the motel for a domestic violence incident just before the explosion.
Some witnesses say that incident may have led to the gas line break.
“She saw some guy jump out of the window and land on the pipe, and then a car pulled up he jumped in the car and it took off,” motel guest Justin Cruse told us.
Bremerton Police Chief Steve Strachan told us his detectives spent the night investigating a possible connection but had reached no conclusion.
We saw a representative of Cascade Natural Gas on the scene and also a federal investigator from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
But the National Transportation Safety Board, which regulates gas pipelines nationally, decided to recall its investigator after local officials determined the gas leak was likely an accident.
Bremerton’s fire chief says there’s a lot to run down.
“When you have an incident like this there's all kinds of rumors: somebody backed in to it, a number of issues, so you've got to track all those issues down and put them to rest,” said Al Duke.
A look at UTC documents found Cascade Natural Gas has a mixed record in recent years. The company was fined $425,000 in 2011 for violating pipeline safety rules.
But when the UTC inspected Cascade’s Bremerton pipeline network in February and March of 2015, the Commission said there were “no issues or concerns.”
No one responded when we rang the intercom at Cascade Natural Gas’ nearby operations center. But in a statement the company said it “will work with local authorities and conduct a thorough investigation.”
KIRO
