VIDEO: A gas explosion killed 1 person and injured 15 others in downtown Durham on Wednesday morning.
North Carolina Emergency Management activated and deployed a 35-member special task force and search and rescue team. That team is at the explosion scene, and it includes firefighters from Raleigh and Chapel Hill.
"I've never seen anything like it before," Robin Jarvi said. "I was sitting at the traffic light...and I smelled heavy, heavy gas. There were people in the building. I saw a business owner put a sign that said 'Business is closed for the day because of a gas leak.' As soon as I went through the traffic light, the whole building exploded." A Durham firefighter was one of the people injured. He was taken to the hospital with serious injuries. A Dominion Energy employee was also injured in the explosion. Conditions of the other injured people have not been released.