Results tagged “explosion”

There was an electrical explosion in the 1500 block of 19th Street NW at around 10:30 a.m. this morning. A crew of contractors was working on an outdoor, above ground electrical supply at the time, and two workers were injured in the incident. One of the workers is reported to be in serious condition resulting from burns received in the explosion, according to D.C. Fire/EMS.

The Health and Human Services building at 200 Independence Ave. SW was evacuated shortly after 10 a.m. this morning after a small electrical explosion occurred in the building. No injuries and no fire resulted from the explosion, which happened in a penthouse electrical room and affected a transformer connected to the building's A/C system, according to D.C. Fire/EMS spokesperson Pete Piringer. The building was reportedly evacuated as a precaution due to the possibility of a secondary explosion.

D.C. Fire and EMS responded to a call about a possible explosion at Union Station at about 11:45 a.m. FEMS units are on scene investigating, but have yet to determine whether an explosion took place.

WJLA reports that a 'bug bomb' -- those aerosol cans of pesticides that you set off in the middle of a room to battle bad insect infestations -- caused a small explosion in an apartment in a four-story building at 1907 Good Hope Road SE this morning. Yikes! One minor injury was reported. The state of New York actually recently banned such insect foggers due to health and safety issues associated with the products.

D.C. Fire/EMS is reporting an explosion at a Southeast D.C. home this afternoon that critically injured at least one person. It's looking like a propane tank exploded inside the basement of a house at 1127 46th Street SE. FOX5 is reporting that a 49-year-old man who was inside the home is in critical condition after suffering second and third-degree burns from the explosion and subsequent fire. Fire crews remain on the scene, and there's some concern that the house could collapse.

   

A truck caught fire earlier this morning at 12th and P Streets NW, eventually leading to a small explosion as the gas tank succumbed to the flames. The truck was a rambling pickup that, along with its bed full of scrap wood, has been a neighborhood fixture for years. The single bike cop on the scene kept onlookers from walking down P and waited for the fire department as the fire spread from beneath the hood to envelope the cab and front tires. Eventually, fire personnel and additional police arrived; as they were setting up the hose, the truck's gas tank exploded (previous exciting noises: the horn going off; the horn's pathetic death squeak; and a long, loud hissing).

WTOP is reporting a large explosion at a shopping center in Prince George's County. Six people, most of them firefighters, were seriously injured in the blast. The firefighters had been there in response to a call for a natural gas leak at the Penn Mar shopping center in Forestville, Md. See also the AP, and WTOP provides the aerial photo. Looks like the mall was basically leveled at one end. Luckily, the building was evacuated shortly before the explosion.

  

DCist photographer Meaghan Gay captured these images of today's special effects explosion on the Potomac River, near the Key Bridge. The pyrotechnic effect went off around 3 p.m., and lasted just a few seconds. The Washington Post also has video of the effect, which was filmed for a television pilot being produced by CBS, titled Washington Field. Whether that pilot will ever see the light of day, of course, remains to be seen. The Post's video shows that the remaining smoldering flames were safely put out.

A television crew will create a special effects explosion on the Potomac River, near the Key Bridge, on Wednesday morning, according to city officials.

Longtime reader and photo contributor Jaime Fearer sent us this cameraphone shot of a minivan that caught on fire in an alley next to 1401 17th Street NW, near O Street. Jamie reports that firefighters are on the scene trying to get inside the car and that the fire appears to be contained at this point, though the horn in the minivan was going off at just after 12:15 p.m. 17th Street is temporarily closed right now between Massachusetts Ave. and P Street NW while firefighters work. Parts of O Street may also be closed in the area, so plan accordingly.

Subscribers to the Arlington Alert email list received a message earlier with the news that some event in Northern Virginia this afternoon registered on the richter scale.

The National Earthquake Information Center, via FEMA Operations, is reporting that Northern VA has experienced rumblings equivalent to an earthquake of magnitude 2 to 3. It remains unclear if this was an actual earthquake, or due to another cause. Arlington OEM will continue to monitor.

Late breaking news in the Times Square Armed Forces recruiting center bombing early this morning: eight House Democrats reportedly received mailed letters today from someone claiming responsibility for the bombing. The letters also included photographs of the Manhattan recruiting center before it was bombed, along with the words, "We did it."

WJLA reported this morning on a big explosion at a Northeast apartment complex due to a natural gas leak.

We've reached another Friday, D.C., but if those light flurries that accompanied you on your way into work this morning gave you visions of a leisurely Saturday snowball fight, you'll likely end up disappointed. Very little accumulation is expected from these flakes, and the weekend will see temperatures back in the upper 40s, with a possibility of some light rain on Saturday morning, according to CapitalWeather.com. If this update doesn't satisfy your weather nerd urges,...

Howard Kurtz's WaPo column today concerns the kerfuffle over Tim Page's angry email to Ward 8 Council Member Marion Barry's office that we told you about yesterday. As you'll recall, Page, who writes about classical music for the Post, received an unsolicited press release from Barry's office about the city's deal with Specialty Hospitals of America to purchase the Greater Southeast Community Hospital. Page then fired off an angry email in which he called the...

The Associated Press is reporting that seven cars of a freight train have derailed over the Anacostia River. No injuries have been reported. Six of the seven cars are in the river, and another is hanging off the trestle. Coal and some hydraulic fluid and oil ended up in the river, but the fire department says it's been contained. We'll update again when we learn more. UPDATE 4:45 p.m. Thanks to an anonymous reader...

UPDATE: NBC4 has their videos stupidly set to play automatically every time you refresh the page, so we moved the embedded video as a courtesy to our readers. If you'd like to see the video, you can follow this link or see it embedded below the fold. Photo above is by Bullneck. DCist has a long and well documented irrational fear of manhole mishaps, so we thought we'd better share the glorious terror of...

MONDAY >> Do you like screamo? How about metalcore? Us neither, but if you do, get yourself to the 9:30 Club, for Underoath and similarly sinisterly-named Every Time I Die, Poison the Well, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, and Belle and Sebastian. Just kidding about the last one. 6 p.m., $18. TUESDAY >> Stevie Wonder needs no introduction. He's coming to the Verizon Center today. Tickets start at $68, so get your wallet ready....

Editor's note: The DAM! Fest concludes tonight with Cat Power at 9:30 Club. One of our critics headed out to the Historic Sixth and I Synagogue on Saturday and her thoughts on the show are below. Let us know which DAM! shows you caught and what you thought of them in the comments. Exit Clov: What can we say about Exit Clov that we haven't already said? The overwhelming beauty and austerity of the Sixth...

While no major event on the schedule this week trumps all others, there are several concerts that will merit your attention. Three of them are scheduled for Thursday night. If contemporary music was the headliner last week, this week it is early music. >> Opera Lafayette's bread and butter is in presenting obscure Baroque operas, usually French, sung by exceptional voices and with the help of their fine instrumental ensemble. The group opens its season...

Good morning, Washington. More news today on the Virginia abusive driver's fees front, this time even closer to home. Arlington residents will be cheered to hear that an Arlington County General District Court judge has ruled that Virginia's abusive-driver fees are unconstitutional. Judge Dorothy H. Clarke is the fourth District Court judge in Virginia to make such a ruling, but the first one in Northern Virginia. Naturally, the state will appeal the decision, and this...

View Larger MapView Larger Map We've long been concerned with the dangers of exploding manholes, and this morning one such explosion has disrupted electricity to businesses and residences in an area of downtown just north of Sherman Circle, in the 900 block of Farragut St. NW. The Associated Press says that Pepco has been notified and crews should already be on the scene. Thankfully, no injuries have been reported. Anyone seen anything down there?...

Good morning, Washington. Have you recovered from yesterday's local sports emotional rollercoaster yet? The Nationals bid farewell to RFK, and managed to close out their time there with a 5-3 victory over the Phillies. The Redskins, on the other hand, well ... we might still not be ready to talk about that last drive. Yet despite the despondent football fans across the region this morning, we get the sense that no one is sadder than...

Written by DCist contributor Eric Denman The strip of 18th Street between Kalorama and Columbia is notorious for bars serving cheap beer, takeout joints serving huge slices of pizza, and the resulting explosion of drunken sloppy pizza inhalation. A few places on this strip break the mold, though, and Bourbon is one of them. An outpost of the popular spot in Glover Park, Bourbon is a haven for those seeking to escape the monotony that...

This week ended with the launch of the seventh and final Harry Potter installation. But while the world was consumed with Pottermania, it's important to remember that there were more serious things going on in the world, too – two of them in -Ist cities. Sampaist was shocked when a passenger jet crashed into the center of Sao Paulo, killing at least 200 people. The airplane, an Airbus A320, skidded off the runway at the...

Good morning, Washington. We've just been catching up on the rather scary looking but thankfully not terror-related explosion in Manhattan yesterday. Naturally, our parent site Gothamist has complete coverage of the steam explosion that occurred on East 41st and Lexington Avenue (41st between Lex and Third) just before 6 p.m. yesterday. Unsurprisingly, the explosion, which killed one person and injured 30, had New Yorkers worried for a while, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said...

Good morning, Washington. If you haven't already, make sure to take the time to read one of the stories that ran over the weekend about one of the important legacies Lady Bird Johnson left behind for our city: the work of her Committee for a More Beautiful Capital, which created more park space and added D.C.'s signature tulips, daffodils and cherry trees to existing triangles throughout the city. The Post has an excellent overview...

Once upon a time, in a dirty and slightly sticky corner of the motion picture industry, there were films produced purely for the sake of feeding audiences' seemingly endless appetite for gaudy sex and near pornographic violence, often slathered with buckets of unnaturally red viscera and always with a splashy title and equally eye-catching poster. The rise of independent cinema in the 1970s made for an explosion of these low-budget features, and audiences hungry for...

MONDAY You know, kids. If you are, for whatever reason, uncomfortable saying the Pledge of Allegiance in class, just cross your fingers or something, or say “the Sun God Ra” instead of “The United States of America.” Or just suck it up and deal, it’s not like the Pledge really has binding legal power. Or just take Joel Westheimer’s advice. He wrote a book about this stuff: Pledging Allegiance: The Politics of Patriotism in America's...

Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues. "Has a second core emerged?" asked a Bureau of Labor Statistics report this week, drawing the metropolitan area's attention to the remarkable growth in business and professional employment in Virginia's Fairfax County. Headline after headline emphasized the county's new status as second pole in a newly bipolar metropolis, after we learned that Fairfax had pulled to within 100,000 jobs of the District...