DURHAM, N.C. — One person is dead and 25 were injured after an explosion and partial building collapse near Brightleaf Square in downtown Durham on Wednesday morning, police said.
Nine firefighters were among those injured, authorities said.
Durham firefighters and Dominion Energy crews responded to a call about a gas leak at about 9:38 a.m., the City of Durham said in a news release.
A contractor was burrowing under a sidewalk and hit a 2-inch gas line, “which caused an explosion and a partial building collapse,” Glenn said.
The explosion happened just after 10 a.m. local time, sending flames and a plume of smoke high into the air and turning a building into rubble. Businesses and restaurants in the area were evacuated, and students from nearby Durham School of the Arts were dismissed early.
Witnesses nearby reported hearing and feeling a loud explosion that shattered window panes.
“People were sitting at their desks and ceiling tiles were falling,” said Jim Rogalski, who works in a Duke University office directly across the street from the explosion. “Stuff flew off shelves. You could barely see for 25 feet from all the dust. People were screaming.”
Dottie Flake was walking to work from her home on Trinity Avenue and was a block from the scene.
“I just heard a boom, and didn’t know what it was with all the construction around here,” she said. “I saw the smoke, then fire trucks and first responders, and everyone was rushing out of their buildings.”
It was not clear whether anyone had been evacuated before the explosion.
Will Hunt, who works at the Peabody Place building a block away from the explosion, said he did not receive any sort of warning about a gas leak. The road was not closed, he said, adding that a co-worker drove by the building just before the blast.
“About two minutes after my co-worker came back, the explosion happened,” Hunt said. “It sounded like nothing I had ever heard before. Our roof moved. It sounded like something extremely heavy was dropped on top of our building.”
The address where the contractor was working is home to a coffee shop called Kaffeinate and a company called Prescient.
On Instagram, Kaffeinate urged its customers to stay away.
“Please do not come to the shop or the area around it,” the business said on Instagram. “We are ok. We will update when we can. Thank you so much.”
The block also houses Torero’s Mexican restaurant and Saint James Seafood.
Durham City Council member Mark-Anthony Middleton said local leaders are “absolutely devastated.”
“This is a challenging and dark day,” Anthony said. “We are saddened and heartbroken over the loss of life.”
Reporters Josh Shaffer and Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan contributed to this report.
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