Tuesday night, motel 6 in Bremerton, Washington exploded.
- Critically injuring a gas company worker with second- and third-degree burns.
- Acting hotel manager had evacuated the building due to a leak.
Authorities said, a gas leak was reported just before 8 p.m.,motel 6 in Bremerton workers and patrons were able to evacuate the motel just prior to the blast, which happened at 8:24 p.m. Firefighters were still trying to extinguish a blaze at the motel hours after the explosion.
According to Bremerton Police Chief Steve Strachan ,there were no reports of anyone trapped in the rubble, but fire officials planned to go through carefully to make sure. “There are no reports that anyone was inside, but we can’t say with certainty that everyone was evacuated,” he said.
The Motel 6 in Bremerton had about 65 guests in 42 occupied rooms, and the blast destroyed about one-quarter of the building, Manager Tonya Hinds said. She said that one guest reported having seen someone jump out a window of the three-story establishment and land on or near the gas line just before the leak.
“I pulled the alarm and started corralling people away from the building, I wanted to make sure all my guests were out, she said.
Bremerton is a city in Kitsap County, Washington, United States. The population was 39,056 at the 2013 State Estimate, making it the largest city on the Kitsap Peninsula. Bremerton is home to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and the Bremerton Annex of Naval Base Kitsap. Bremerton is connected to Downtown Seattle by a 60-minute ferry route, which carries both vehicles and walk-on passengers along a 17-mile sailing route to Seattle.
Bremerton is located directly west of Seattle across the Puget Sound on the Kitsap Peninsula. It is bounded on the southeast and east by Sinclair Inlet and the strait of Port Orchard respectively. The city is divided by the Port Washington Narrows, a strait spanned by two bridges that connects, the eastern and western sides of the city. The part of the city northeast of the narrows is referred to as East Bremerton. The city’s southern border is contiguous with Mason County and includes Bremerton National Airport.IMAGE/MEEGAN M. REID