Explosion in Maryland townhouse leaves two injured
(Reuters) - A suspected gas explosion badly damaged or destroyed several Maryland town houses on Wednesday and injured two people, including a gas company employee who was on scene to fix a gas leak, officials said.
The Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue Services said on its Twitter account that crews encountered "heavy fire" at the homes in Columbia, some 20 miles southwest of Baltimore.
The fire department said a worker for Baltimore Gas who had been called to fix a gas leak in a home was injured and hospitalized. Another resident on the street suffered respiratory injuries.
Fire crews were able to bring the blaze under control after about four hours, and the explosion appeared to have been located in an unoccupied home, Howard County fire officials said.
The cause of the blast was still under investigation and there were no missing residents in the area, they said.
Local broadcaster WJZ published a video online showing flames scorching one of the units and plumes of black smoke shooting into the air.
(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in SAN FRANCISCO; Editing by Eric Beech)
