World News | High-rise Fire Kills 1, Displaces 400 Residents in DC Suburb

Silver Spring (US), Feb 19 (AP) One person died and one is in critical condition after a fire early Saturday at a high-rise apartment building in a suburb of Washington, DC, the Washington Post and other local media reported.

The fire in downtown Silver Spring sent more than a dozen other people, including three firefighters, to the hospital and displaced more than 400 residents, the Post reported.

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Officials told the newspaper that the fire was reported in an apartment on the seventh floor of Arrive, a 15-story building, and estimated the damage at $2 million.

Vic Washington, who lives on the third floor, told the Post that he heard two explosions around 6 am.

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"It definitely startled me," he said. "The alarms were going off. It was very traumatic."

Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott E. Goldstein said the cause of the fire is under investigation.

Godstein added that officials are aware of reports of loud booms and that they believe they could be related to aerosol cans that were in the apartment. He said the fire was contained to an apartment on the seventh floor. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)