2016-08-10 8701 Arliss Street 3rd Alarm Documentation Package for the 2017 ACR

Pete Piringer Retweeted

Pete Piringer @mcfrsPIO Top Large Loss Fire '16 - Arliss St fire/explosion - 28 apt units/50 families displaced, 7 deaths (4 fire fatalities); $>$1.5M damage (8/10)

Pete Piringer @mcfrsPIO More Watch this Video: MoCo Emergency Response '16 Silver Spring Fire/Explosion (Including Body- Camera Footage) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_F7SnQt7B4#action=share ______Accreditation Manager’s Note: The video message with the PIO includes much Arliss St. discussion

From: Goldstein, Scott Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2016 2:52 PM To: #FRS.ALL <#[email protected]> Subject: Monthly Fire Chief's Video - September 2016 This month’s guest was PIO Pete Piringer https://youtu.be/arQUfEcUFyA

Next month’s guest will be Alyce Leach from PSHQ Fiscal Management

As I note in the video – I have open slots for guests to join me starting in December. If you are interested – please email me. Scott E. Goldstein

Fire Chief Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service 100 Edison Park Drive, 2nd Floor Gaithersburg, Maryland 20878 Office 240-777-2464 Fax 240-777-2415 Cell - 240-832-2598 [email protected]

This message (including any attachments) contains confidential information intended for a specific individual and purpose, and is protected by law. If you are not the intended recipient, you should delete this message and are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, or distribution of this message, or the taking of any action on it, is strictly prohibited. As a recipient of this email you are not authorized to forward or re-use any of the information, including attachments, without direct written approval from me. IC3 NCR SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS REPORT (#003)

Incident Name: Silver Spring, MD Fire – Montgomery County, MD – 08/10-11/2016 Situational Analysis Report #: (003) Report Date: 08/11/2016 Issue Time: 2:15pm Period: PM

Current Situation Overview: Montgomery County Fire Public Information Officer reports investigation ongoing at 8644 Piney Branch Road Flower Branch Apartments. Two confirmed fatalities, and five people remain missing and unaccounted. Recovery, search and rescue, and mass sheltering operations are anticipated to ongoing and extended in duration.

Impacts:  ESF1 (Transportation): Piney Branch Rd (MD 320) is closed in both directions between University Blvd (MD 193) and Flower Ave. Expect extended closure.  ESF4 (Fire): 3 firefighters transported to hospital. o DC FEMS units deployed to scene have returned to home stations; 2 Engines, 1 Truck  ESF5 (Emergency Management): Unified Command established through Local Police and Fire at the intersection of Arliss St and & Piney Branch Rd (MD 320) o No EMAC/MOUs currently activated (as reported)  ESF6 (Mass Care): ~90 people have been displaced and are at Red Cross Shelters; 30 people sustained minor to major injuries; transported to local area hospital. o Family Reunification Centers established at: . Rolling Terrace Elementary School, 705 Bayfield Street, Takoma Park, MD20912 . CASA Welcome Center, 734 University Blvd East, Silver Spring, MD o American Red Cross and Montgomery County Health and Human Services are coordinating sheltering and support center at Long Branch Recreation Center. . Support campaign website established: http://us5.campaign- archive2.com/?u=bd8805537d3a89b3ed6979ce2&id=6b56e41264 o Long Branch Recreation Center (8700 Piney Branch Rd, Silver Spring, MD) used for sheltering operation  ESF9 (SAR): Search and Rescue operations are underway and concurrent to recovery operations; 5- 7 residents unaccounted for at this time. Background:

Fire department units operated overnight on a three alarm apartment fire at 8644 Piney Branch Road involving two buildings and numerous rescues. A mass casualty was declared due to the number of burn victims and other injured residents. Over twenty-four residents were evaluated and numerous transported from the scene as well as three firefighters for heat exhaustion.

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IC3 NCR SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS REPORT (#003) One building is confirmed to have suffered from an explosion and fire as well as substantial collapse while a second building suffered from partial collapse due to fire. Fire Department units will remain on the scene for an extended period. Media reports that searches remain underway for 5-7 unaccounted for residents. (Montgomery County 911 Reporting)

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IC3 NCR SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS REPORT (#001) Incident Name: Silver Spring, MD Fire – Montgomery County, MD – 08/10-11/2016 Situational Analysis Report #: (001) Report Date: 08/11/2016 Issue Time: 8:45am Period: AM

Current Situation Overview: Fire department units operated overnight on a three alarm apartment fire at 8644 Piney Branch Road involving two buildings and numerous rescues. A mass casualty was declared due to the number of burn victims and other injured residents. Over twenty-four residents were evaluated and numerous transported from the scene as well as three firefighters for heat exhaustion.

One building is confirmed to have suffered from an explosion and fire as well as substantial collapse while a second building suffered from partial collapse due to fire. Fire Department units will remain on the scene for an extended period. Media reports that searches remain underway for 5-7 unaccounted for residents. (Montgomery County 911 Reporting)

Impacts:  ESF1 (Transportation): Piney Branch Rd (MD 320) is closed in both directions between University Blvd (MD 193) and Flower Ave. Expect extended closure.  ESF4 (Fire): 3 firefighters transported to hospital.  ESF6 (Mass Care): ~90 people have been displaced and are at Red Cross Shelters; 30 people sustained minor to major injuries; transported to local area hospital.  ESF9 (SAR): Search and Rescue operations are underway/concurrent to recovery operations; 5-7 residents unaccounted for at this time.

2:06 pm, March 6, 2017

(http://wtop.com) Natural gas explosion led to Silver Spring apt. fire, ATF says By Colleen Kelleher (http://wtop.com/author/colleen­kelleher/) | @KelleherWTOP (https://twitter.com/KelleherWTOP) and Jack Moore (http://wtop.com/author/jack­moore/) August 19, 2016 11:46 am

Crews with canine unit focus on a corner of the Flower Branch apartments in Silver Spring, Maryland. An explosion and fire tore through the apartment complex in the late night hours of Aug. 10. At least five people died in the blast, police said Aug. 14. (WTOP/Megan Cloherty) WASHINGTON — A natural gas explosion in a basement meter room was the cause of a three­alarm fire that engulfed a Silver Spring apartment complex last week and killed seven people, officials confirmed Friday.

The natural gas fed the blaze that consumed the buildings, said Daniel Board, the head of the Baltimore field office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, during a Friday morning news conference.

There is no indication that a criminal act occurred, Board said.

Montgomery County Assistant Police Chief Russ Hamill said authorities have identified through DNA three of the seven sets of remains recovered from the wreckage of the Flower Branch apartments.

The following people have been positively identified:

Augusto Jimenez Sr., 62 Maria Auxiliadorai Castellon­Martinez, 53 Saul Paniagua, 65

Hamill said he couldn’t provide a timeline for when the four remaining remains would be positively identified, although police had previously released the names of the missing people who are now presumed dead.

“Everybody involved with that process is working extremely diligently,” he said of the DNA identification process. “We understand the agony of the families. We understand the daily toll this takes on them.”

No additional victims are expected to be found in the rubble, Hamill said.

The Aug. 10 explosion and fire injured 40 others and displaced about 100 residents of the complex, who sheltered by the Red Cross at a nearby community center.

Board said the meter room where the explosion occurred was in the apartment building at 8701 Piney Branch Road. Investigators found no incendiary device in the location of the “blast seat,” Board said, and there was no indication of unauthorized access to the meter room.

ATF’s investigation included over 100 witness interviews, reviewing surveillance video, reconstructing the gas meter lines and “digging by hand through four stories of charred debris,” Board said.

ATF is still trying to figure out what ignited the gas, Board said.

“From the site of the explosion itself, we’re trying to find out what ignited or caused or started that explosion, as in the specific incident or specific item from inside that room.”

The National Transportation Safety Board, which announced Wednesday it would open its own probe into the blast, is now taking charge of the investigation, Montgomery County officials said. Residents of the apartment had reportedly smelled the odor of natural gas in the weeks before the explosion. Montgomery County fire officials said the fire department received a call on July 25 about the odor of natural gas in the vicinity of the apartment. Acting fire chief Alan Hinde said crews responded with gas­detecting meters to survey the building and reported no positive results.

Ravi Chhatre, a senior pipeline investigator, is leading the NSTB review. He previously led the investigation of a 2014 gas explosion in East Harlem, New York, that leveled two buildings and killed eight people.

Chhatre said it could take up to a year before the agency’s probe is complete.

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IN OTHER NEWS: Search continues for missing in explosion at MD apartment

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