Explosion at historic Texas hotel injures at least 21

An explosion at a historic Texas hotel in Fort Worth has blown out windows, littered downtown streets with large piles of debris from the building and injured at least 21 people.

Rescue crews found several people trapped in the basement of the 20-storey Sandman Signature Hotel in the heart of downtown Fort Worth, said Craig Trojacek, a spokesman for the Fort Worth Fire Department.

Investigators believe the blast on Monday was caused by natural gas, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives spokeswoman Sara Abel said.

More than two dozen rooms were occupied when the blast took place, Trojacek said. Authorities said they believe a gas leak caused the explosion and said the hotel had been undergoing construction.

“There is a smell of gas in the area and there are windows and things that were blown outside of the structure,” Trojacek said.

Four people were in serious condition and the others taken to hospitals had minor injuries, authorities said at a news conference.

The Sandman Signature Hotel is in a busy area of downtown about one block from the Fort Worth Convention Center. Footage from news helicopters showed firefighters picking their way through the piles of drywall, shattered glass and mangled metal that coated the street outside the hotel. Authorities urged people to avoid the area.

Trojacek said a restaurant in the building had been under construction but said it was not definitive that is where the blast occurred.

Video posted to social media showed a man sitting on a street corner across from the explosion site and holding a woman at his chest. The man appeared to have blood on his forehead, and a medical technician knelt in front of him to tend to his wounds.

A grey haze covered normally busy streets of downtown Fort Worth as firefighters walked through layers of debris. Remnants of the building lay scattered across the street and over parked vehicles, and gaping holes could be seen on the ground.

People in buildings nearby the hotel Monday afternoon recalled hearing a loud crack that sounded like thunder and then seeing a wall of dust and papers sweep through the city streets. Outside, they were met with wreckage and the smell of gas.

“There was debris. There was insulation. There was office furniture,” Charlie Collier, 31, told The Associated Press.

“Everything that was in the first couple floors of the building was blown out all over the street.”

Rebecca Martinez, who works across the street from the hotel, said she stepped outside and came upon a man and a woman leaned up against a fire hydrant.

“The man was all bloody, his face was all bloody,” she said.

“Then I started smelling natural gas, real intense,” Martinez added, “and I thought, ‘I might need to get away from here.’” Moments later authorities evacuated her building and some of the surrounding neighbourhood.

Trojacek said investigators were working with federal investigators to determine the cause of the blast. The scene had left rescue teams unable to immediately reach some parts of the building.

“We had reports of people trapped down in the basement, and because of the explosion that took place, some of those access areas were either covered up or it didn’t feel safe at that point to get people down into,” Trojacek said.

According to the hotel website, the Sandman Signature Fort Worth Downtown Hotel has 245 rooms and was built in 1920.