An apartment building on Detroit's west side was badly damaged in the early hours of Monday after neighbors heard a sound they described as an explosion.
At least 12 people were injured in the explosion, including six children. A report from Local 4 News said that three of the injured were from the same family. Two people were hospitalized in critical condition, according to the Detroit Free Press.
According to Local 4 News, which traveled to the site of the explosion around 4am on Monday morning, the building had been heavily damaged, and police and medical first responders were dealing with multiple injuries.
The explosion blew out the bricks making up the building's western wall, and shattered its windows.
Police told the Free Press they believe everyone occupying the 12-unit apartment building had been evacuated and are accounted for based on thermal imaging from drones circling the home. They said the damage was severe enough that the rest of the building will need to be demolished.
Detroit Fire Commissioner Charles Simms told reporters at the scene that first responders found residents of the building preparing to jump from second-story windows when they arrived. First responders were able to enter the structure and rescue them without further injury.
The injured include a 30-year-old man suffering burns across almost the entirety of his body, a 27-year-old woman who is in critical condition, and a three-year-old girl who was injured by flames inside the structure.
Fire investigators are still working to determine the cause of the explosion.
DTE Energy was on site early on Monday morning. The energy company said it could not confirm if the explosion was caused by a natural gas leak, but shut down the gas service to building as a safety precaution.
One resident of the building who was injured in the blast, Ashley Rinder, told Local 4 News that her boyfriend complained that he smelled gas before going to sleep the night of the incident.
"It sounded like a bomb," she told the news outlet.
She said she was forced to escape out of her window because her door was blocked after the explosion. Rinder said she injured her feet during her escape, and her boyfriend injured his arm while trying to get their 5-month-old son to safety.
She told the outlet that "all our belonging are in the house" and said that her and her boyfriend's vehicles had been destroyed in the blast. She pointed out her boyfriend's truck — which he needs for work — and noted that it had been covered in bricks, destroying its roof and bed.
"That's how he provides for us," she said. "Now we have to figure this all out."
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