At least 10 people were injured in an explosion and fire at an apartment building in Silver Spring, according to Montgomery County Fire and Rescue officials.

Public information officer Peter Piringer said that around 10:30 a.m., fire crews responded to a fire and explosion at the Friendly Garden Apartments on Lyttonsville Road. Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said crews worked to remove “several” people from the building, before a portion of it collapsed. At least ten people have been taken to a local hospital with injuries, several of them with serious injuries, according to Goldstein.

Goldstein did not provide an update on what may have caused the explosion during a media briefing early Thursday afternoon.

“It is too early for me to say what initiated this,” Goldstein said. “We are working through a wide range of concerns and possibilities. Our focus is on life-saving at this time,”

In another media briefing later Thursday afternoon, Goldstein said some individuals had not yet been accounted for, but did not provide the number of missing people.

Five nearby buildings in the complex were evacuated Thursday, and two of those (in addition to the building that originally caught on fire) were deemed unfit for occupany, according to Goldstein. Washington Gas and Pepco were also on the scene, to assist fire officials in assessing any structural issues with the buildings. The Red Cross and county agencies will be connecting residents with housing arrangements, and a donation page has been set up for the residents and families affected by the explosion.

Piringer tweeted at 10:30 a.m. Thursday morning that a fire was reported on the first floor of an apartment building. Goldstein said that when crews arrived, fires had spread to multiple floors. A video shared on Twitter shows the moment the explosion occured in the building.

https://twitter.com/amritsathi/status/1499443836019486720?s=21

“This is obviously a really tragic event here,” County Executive Marc Elrich said. “It’s kind of scary looking at the extent of the explosion. We’ll do everything we can to get to the bottom of it and ultimately decide if there’s something we, as a county, as a regulatory body, need to do.”

In 2016, a massive fire killed seven people and injured more than 30 at an apartment complex in Silver Spring, just about a 15 minute drive away from the Friendly Garden Apartments. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that Washington Gas failed equipment caused the explosion.

This post has been updated with additional information.