#911 calls released from fatal Baltimore gas explosion

Newly released 911 calls show the panic and confusion in the wake of a massive gas explosion in northwest Baltimore that leveled three homes and killed two people.

More than a dozen calls from the Reisterstown Station neighborhood poured into the city emergency line following the Aug. 10 blast, with residents reporting that they smelled gas after the explosion that shattered windows and rattled doors blocks away, WJZ-TV reported.

“The whole, like three whole houses, maybe more, crumbled down,” one caller said. “All you see is debris.”

“Has anyone complained of an unusual odor?” the 911 operator asks.

“Just gas. You smell the gas,” the caller answered. “It’s three houses. Somebody was hollering. I heard screaming.”

Another caller told the dispatcher: “If anyone was in the house I seriously doubt they survived,” the Baltimore Sun reported.

“The houses are gone,” another caller said. “They’re gone.”

“It’s terrible,” said another. “It’s people under these houses that blew up. Please hurry.”

The 10 a.m. blast on the 4200 block of Labyrinth Road turned three homes to rubble. The explosion killed a 20-year-old college student and a 61-year-old woman while injuring seven people — five of them critically, authorities said.

In a statement last week, Baltimore Gas and Electric said an investigation determined that there were no gas leaks at the scene, and city officials continue to investigate the cause of the blast.