Document M4vopw5LN8LLBJY6bMzNaMeyx

txpiosion, hre The Washington Star r.DacwWrlO. 1975 Pn K Street NW Jana Ceccorelli, an insur ance specialist, said, "The lifhu went out. The build- in# began to shake. It kept . Hospitalizes 35 on (taking. It took us quite a Willie to get ourselves to* gettar. We heard beils and tn|fc sirens, and decided to leave." She was in a group Explosions and fire rocked a nearly-completed office building in downtown Washington today, send ing at least 35 persons to hospitals with burns and toxic smoke inhala tion. Two men, both electricians work ing In the building's basement, were , in critical condition with severe external and internal bums. For a time there was fear that one or more bodies would be found a* firemen searched the smoke-filled basement of a 10-story office build ing at 2020 K Street NW, but appar ently no one was caught in a fatal trap as was originally reported. Acrid white smoke from burning plastic electrical Insulation sent dozens of firemen end office workers staggering from the building and collapsing on the sidewalk, where reecne workers administered oxy gen. Dr.Victor Esch, jturgeon for the D.C. Fire Department, said 14 vic- were taken Washington ^wpitaf Center, 11 to George Wash ington University Hospital, 9 to Georgetown and one to Providence. Esch said moat of the victims treated In the hospitals had inhaled THE BUILDING, which coven about two-thirds, of the 20<w block af K Street up to 2lst Street, occupiea the site of the old K Street Mar-. See BL^ST, Mf4 BLAST Continued From A-l ket and the old Third Police Precinct house. Tenants of nearby buildings were unaffected by the fire, separated by alleys to both the east and south. Though technically only a one-alarm fire, two subse quent special alarms call ing for all the department's heavy rescue equipment filled K and 21st Streets with fire trucks and hoses. One occupant of the building, William Adams Jr., a stockbroker in the third-floor office of Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith, described it this of about 20 who made their way down the stairs in the dark. "It was scary," she said. "We heard bells ring ing," said Mabel Herbert of Rockville, a secretary at the federal agency, "but I didn't know Ft was a fire alarm, because we just moved into the building in the middle of September, and we had no training." Mrs. Herbert's daughter, Susan, 21, a fellow employe, passed out from the poison ous smoke on the way out of the building. "We looked out the win dows and saw everyone outside but us," said Marjorie Ashby, of the 1000 block of 30th Street NW, a management assistant at the agency. Ashby described how the agency leerkers groped their way down the seven floors of stairs. "We could n't set anything," she said. "Thebe were no lights in the stairwell. It was very toxic gases caused by the burning polyvinyl chloride insulation used m an electrical panel. Eightaen of tne victims were rushed to hospitals by ambulance, and others Were taken privately. way: "It sounded as though some drilling was going on. Then the lights began toflicker. The alarm went off two or three minutes later. second floor. There were so many people in the stair well we couldn't move swiftly." Ashby said there was a THE EXPLOSIONS and Hash fire started at 9:38 a.m. in an electrical vault in the basement, according to Asst. Fire Chief J.W. Lewis. The baflding, being built by the George Hyman Co., was nearly completed, and in fact some of the office suites were already occupied. Traffic on K Street and on Penn sylvania Avenue a short block to the south was blocked for hours by fire equipment. Hundreds of office workart watched the rescue efforts from the north aide of K Street. 6?9.r.4in8 to Chief Lewis, two men working on the electrical vault were overcome by poisonous fumes from i plastic electrical installation. Lewis . said each time the fire in the vault was extinguished, it would heat up ^uals and explode, overcoming both workers and rescuers. ^^The victims were taken out through an underground parking ga- wge and ap the sta.rways to the first nor. . We got out pretty fast. We came right down the back stairs." Adams said there were about 50 persons in his of fice, which moved into the new building five months ago. He said there was no panic as they fled down the blacked-out stairwell, even though there was a strong smell of smoke as they ap proached the ground-floor exits. | Another Merrill Lynch employe, who asked not to be named, said, "I'm not sure how fast people could have gotten..out ifJJieJmild^ ing had been full or if there had been any panic." WORSE OFF than the brokerage firm employes were workers in the seventh-floor offices of the U.S. Pension Benefit Guar antee Corp.. who didn't certain amount of panic. "To a certain extent, I did panic -- when I got to the second floor and didn't see anything but smoke and didn't know how far it was to'the next exit." Mrs. Herbert said the toxic fumes "caused a burning in our throats and we felt nauseated a while." At that, she said, "we were lucky; ordinarily the stairs are locked for. security rea sons but today they were n't." The source of the smoke, polyvinyl chloride used as electrical insulation, gives off hydrochloric acid fumes as,it burns. Even firemen wearing protective masks were overcome by the fumes, and a continuing procession of firefighters staggered out of-the build ing basement to lie on the sidewalk to be given oxyon bv ambulance attend- Esch said the gas burns a victim's lungs and also has a delayed reaction. "Most of the difficulty comes 12 to 14 hours later," he said. ir. the past several years Eseh said, "we've had over 150 injuries and one death from this stuff." POLYVINYL CHLO RIDE is the same materia being used to line the wall* and ceilings of Metrorail'; new $300,000 rapid transi cars. The National Acade my of Sciences recom mended that the PVC be re placed by a more fire resistant material, bu there has been no move ment in that direction by ei ther the Metro staff o. board of directors. The two critically burnc< electricians were identifier as Curtis Trimmer of 791 Foote Lane, Springfield Va., who was in a coma a GW Hospital with burn over 90 per cent of his bod\ and John Rucker of 62f Paddington Lane, Cente: ville, Va., with sever internal burps and smoL poisoning. Among the other victim all suffering from mhah tion of the toxic fume were the following, i released by the hospitals Jamie Hawkins, Fal Church; William Embr Alexandria; Anne Guilt Bethesda; Robert Meyer Fairfax City; Patricia deYoung, Washing! or Henry Rose, Columbi Md.; Jane Ceccorel McLean;Gail Sevin. Was i r g ton; Susan Herbc Mabel Herbert, Marjoi Ashby, Elvira Knapp, nice Harrison and Joy Chesley, The following firem were treated: Wayne Myvill, Rob< Lohr, Steven Wrigl Steven Sandy, Willu Casey,' Larry Buck, Ri ard Long, Jesse Tyson a William Handley. This story was written David Braatea based on pqrta from Star st writers Charles McAle Timothy Hutchens, Thon Crosby, Robert Pear a Lance Gay. BOR 012582