First responders arrive on the scene after an explosion at a home late Friday in Sterling, Va.

Nicki Jhabvala/Nicki Jhabvala/The Washington Post through AP

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Nicki Jhabvala/Nicki Jhabvala/The Washington Post through AP

First responders arrive on the scene after an explosion at a home late Friday in Sterling, Va.

Nicki Jhabvala/Nicki Jhabvala/The Washington Post through AP

STERLING, Va. — One firefighter was killed and 9 others had been injured when an explosion in a Washington, D.C., suburb on Friday leveled a house the place they had been investigating a gasoline leak. Two civilians had been additionally injured.

The firefighters had been known as to the house in Sterling, Virginia, by a report of a gasoline odor shortly after 7:30 p.m. and a fiery explosion passed off about half-hour later, fireplace officers stated.

The blast and fireplace occurred whereas firefighters had been contained in the constructing, James Williams, assistant chief of operations for Loudon County Fire and Rescue, stated at a information convention.

“Soon after arrival, with firefighters inside, the house did explode,” Williams stated.

One firefighter was killed, whereas 9 firefighters and two civilians had been taken to hospitals with accidents starting from restricted to extreme, Williams stated.

“We have all firefighters out of the building. The fire will continue to smolder,” Williams stated.

He described harm to the house as “total devastation.”

“There’s a debris field well into the street and into the neighboring homes,” he stated.

Williams stated the reason for the hearth was underneath investigation.

In a put up on X, previously Twitter, the Sterling Volunteer Fire Company stated its crews had responded to a report of a gasoline leak earlier than the blast.

A neighbor, John Padgett, informed ABC7 News that he had smelled gasoline whereas strolling his canine earlier.

The blast shook his residence, he stated.

“It looked like an inferno,” and insulation from the burning residence fell like ash, he added. “It was horrific; it looked like something out of a war zone.”

Sterling is about 22 miles (35 kilometers) northwest of Washington, D.C.