DALLAS — A child and at least two other people were killed Thursday when an explosion and rapidly spreading fire destroyed a two-story apartment building in the Oak Cliff neighborhood south of downtown, Dallas Fire-Rescue officials said.
Firefighters were already responding to a report of a gas leak at the complex when the blast occurred, Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesperson Jason Evans told reporters. The explosion shook nearby homes and sent a column of black smoke over the city that witnesses said was visible for miles.
Evans confirmed three fatalities as of Thursday night and said at least five people had been taken to area hospitals with injuries. He declined to specify the nature of those injuries or the conditions of the hospitalized residents.
“This was enormous,” Evans said of the fire.
The number of residents who lived in the complex remained unclear late Thursday. Evans said search-and-recovery crews had worked through less than half of the building’s footprint by hand, and that some sections of the charred structure would require excavation before they could be fully searched.
“We are not ruling out that additional victims will be located,” Evans said.
The cause of the gas leak and the subsequent explosion remained under investigation by Dallas Fire-Rescue and city authorities. No cause-of-death determinations for the three known victims had been released as of Thursday night.
The building is located in a residential section of Oak Cliff, a historically working-class neighborhood whose housing stock includes a mix of older wood-frame apartment complexes and single-family homes. Thursday’s fire is among the deadliest residential fires in Dallas in recent years.