Authorities reported that at least eight people were injured and taken to hospitals after an Austin apartment explosion in Chicago on Tuesday morning as an investigation seeks to determine the cause of the blast.
At least three of the victims were listed in serious to critical condition, said Chicago fire in a Twitter post. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and the Chicago Police bomb unit were also on the scene to assist with the investigation of the incident.
Austin Apartment Building Explosion
During a brief news conference, Deputy Fire Commissioner Marc Ferman said that he was unable to provide any further details of the victims' conditions. However, he said that he had heard the injuries range from "burns to traumatic injuries."
Ferman said that fire companies were dispatched at around 9:00 a.m. local time with the first unit that arrived, which was a battalion chief, calling for a collapse response. He witnessed "some sort of an explosion and a partial collapse of the upper floor of a residential building, as per CNN.
Officials were forced to conduct a "technical sort of search" of the building due to its deteriorated conditions, said Ferman. The upper floor was "compromised," so technical experts were called in to support the structure with struts to allow rescue personnel to safely search for victims and remove debris.
Chicago Fire noted that the building had four stories and 35 units, adding that investigators were looking at the top floor as the possible source of the explosion. Authorities said that they were "confident" they had gotten everyone out of the building. However, Ferman said that the search remained ongoing, with an unknown number of residents being displaced.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, a nearby resident, Otis Manning, said that he was watching television while preparing to go to work when a blast tore through the top floor of the apartment building across the street on Tuesday morning.
Origin of Blast Remains Unknown
He said, "All of a sudden, I hear boom. My heart almost shot out of my body. I saw windows busted open, I saw debris." The blast shattered roughly three-fourths of the windows of the building while a Nissan sedan parked in front of the apartment was covered in pieces of bricks that shattered its windshield.
Nearby residents quickly ran in every direction after the initial explosion, with some screaming they had loved ones inside as police urged them to get back in case there was another blast. Authorities called in10 ambulances to transport the victims, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.
Two of the victims, who were men, were taken to Loyola University Medical Center, one in serious to critical condition, and the other in fair to serious condition. A third man was taken in serious to critical condition to Mount Sinai Medical Center.
Authorities said that a total of six men and two women were taken to local hospitals to be treated for injuries resulting from the explosion. Fire officials noted that one of the victims was in a building across the street from the blast, ABC News reported.
Related Article : Hurricane Fiona: Here's How You Can Send Aid To Calamity-Hit Puerto Rico
