STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
An apartment complex in Dallas exploded Thursday. Three people are dead, including a child, and others are missing. Dylan Duke from our Dallas station, KERA, is covering this. Dylan, good morning.
DYLAN DUKE, BYLINE: Good morning.
INSKEEP: It exploded. What happened?
DUKE: Yeah. So around noon Thursday, Dallas firefighters were responding to a reported gas leak in the southwest Oak Cliff neighborhood. But before they actually got there, there was an explosion, followed by a fire that ripped through a nearby apartment building. So when those first responders arrived, they quickly realized they would need backup, and about 120 firefighters were there at its peak. Now, after containing the fire and excavating the debris, three bodies were found, two females and one child. We also know five people were injured, with one being in critical condition, but stable. And this building complex had 23 units, so it's possible more people will be discovered.
INSKEEP: What did you see when you went there?
DUKE: On the street where the explosion happened, 9th Street, I saw dozens of emergency vehicles. There was firefighters using water cannon to put out the flames of this building that was mostly rubble and black with char. Really, the entire complex was leveled by the explosion and fire. And outside the family assistance center, which police set up inside a nearby high school, there were people looking for their friends who were missing. I saw about a dozen people carrying their stuff in black trash bags into that assistance center. Some said they had lost everything except the clothes on their back. Others I spoke to were also looking for a prominent Democratic Party precinct chair, Sylvia Collins, who lived on the first floor of the apartment complex. She is just one of the people who are unaccounted for currently.
INSKEEP: Dylan, I just want to note - I mean, gas is extremely I can explode, obviously, but it doesn't always. I can recall a gas leak on my own street, and people were smoking while repairing it. If it's outside, it's not that dangerous, but it can be. Do you know that the gas leak was responsible here?
DUKE: Authorities haven't given an official reason. They have referred to it as, you know, a gas explosion. But the natural gas company, Atmos, said in a statement the fire department told them that a construction crew, unrelated to Atmos, had damaged one of the firm's gas pipelines by the apartment block. And, you know, while officials investigate the cause, the fire department has been working throughout the night to excavate the remaining debris and recover any additional victims. And that's been very tough on the firefighters. Jason Evans is a spokesperson for the fire department.
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JASON EVANS: There are a number of things that we are before we are first responders. That is - excuse me. You know, we're parents, with school being let out, and the possibilities regarding who might be in those apartments, you know, they really weigh on the heart.
DUKE: The Red Cross is currently in Dallas providing hotel rooms to people who lost their homes in the fire.
INSKEEP: What do you hear from people in the neighborhood?
DUKE: A lot of people were shocked and scared just by the actual explosion itself. I spoke to Natasha Sanchez, who said she could feel the blast from almost two blocks away.
NATASHA SANCHEZ: I felt like my house shook, like it was hit by a car or something, but there wasn't a noise. It was - just felt like a small earthquake, big enough to make me get up and walk around my house to see if something had hit the side of the highway near my house.
DUKE: Sanchez was in the area helping care for the people who had been displaced.
INSKEEP: Dylan Duke in Dallas, covering an explosion that seems to have destroyed an apartment building. He's at KERA. Thanks so much.
DUKE: Thank you.
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