Explosion at historic Texas hotel injures 21 and scatters debris in Fort Worth

Debris in the street after an explosion near the Sandman Hotel in downtown Fort Worth, Texas. Photo / Twitter

An explosion at a historic Texas hotel in Fort Worth today blew out windows, littered downtown streets with large piles of debris from the building and injured 21 people, including one person who is in critical condition, authorities said.

Investigators believe the blast was caused by natural gas, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives spokeswoman Sara Abel said. Two people were in serious condition and the others taken to hospitals had minor injuries.

Medics also treated four more people on the scene but did not take them to a hospital, said Desiree Partain of MedStar, which provides ambulance and emergency medical services in Fort Worth.

First responders work the scene after an explosion at the Sandman Signature hotel. Photo / AP

The Sandman Signature Hotel is in a busy area of downtown about one block from the Fort Worth Convention Centre. Footage from news helicopters showed firefighters picking their way through the piles of drywall, shattered glass and mangled metal that coated the street outside the hotel. Authorities urged people to avoid the area.

“There is a smell of gas in the area and there are windows and things that were blown outside of the structure,” Fort Worth Fire Department spokesman Craig Trojacek said. .

A restaurant in the building had been under construction but it was not definitive that is where the blast occurred, he said.

Video posted to social media showed a man sitting on a street corner across from the explosion site and holding a woman at his chest. The man appeared to have blood on his forehead, and a medical technician knelt in front of him to tend to his wounds.

A grey haze covered normally busy streets of downtown Fort Worth as firefighters walked through layers of debris. Remnants of the building lay scattered across the street and over parked vehicles, and gaping holes could be seen on the ground.

Texas state representative Nicole Collier, whose district office is about eight blocks from the hotel, said she didn’t hear the explosion but heard the sirens of responding emergency vehicles and helicopters overhead. Collier tried walking toward the site but emergency responders had already closed several blocks and were warning people to stay away.

According to the hotel website, the Sandman Signature Fort Worth Downtown Hotel has 245 rooms and was built in 1920 as the “Waggoner Building,” named after cattle rancher and oilman William Thomas Waggoner. The building has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979.