PATRIOT BREMERTON
KITSAP WEEKLY FAIR FUN: Exhibits, animals, food and rides at Kitsap County Fair
FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 2015 | Vol. 18, No. 24 | WWW.BREMERTONPATRIOT.COM | 50¢
‘I thought it was a bomb’
Gas leak causes explosion; levels part of Motel 6 on Kitsap Way BY CHRIS TUCKER AND PETER O’CAIN CTUCKER@SOUNDPUBLISHING.COM POCAIN@SOUNDPUBLISHING.COM
BREMERTON – An acrid smell of smoke filled the air near Motel 6 in Bremerton as firefighters and other emergency personnel dealt with an explosion that partially destroyed the building around 8:30 p.m. Aug. 18. The acting hotel manager, Tonya Hinds, evacuated the building after being informed of a gas leak shortly before 8 p.m. Hinds, a former volunteer firefighter, said she stepped outside the motel and could hear the leak about 50 yards away. “The smell was so intense I knew this was very big,” Hinds said. “I called 911 immediately.” “I wanted to make sure all my guests were out,” she said. About 10 minutes after the rooms were emptied, the east end of the motel exploded, Hinds said. Bremerton Police Chief Steve Strachan said there were no reports of anyone trapped inside. One employee from Cascade Natural Gas was critically injured with second- and third-degree burns and flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. “Our thoughts and prayers are with our employee and his family. He sustained serious injuries and is receiving care at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center,” said Eric Martuscelli, vice president of operations for Cascade Natural Gas. “We greatly appreciate the quick action by the motel employees to evacuate guests after learning of the natural gas odor.” Hinds said the motel had 75-80 guests in 42 occupied rooms, and the blast destroyed about one-quarter of the building. Hinds said one guest may have seen someone jumping out of a window of the three story motel just before the leak. Firefighters from Bremerton, South Kitsap, Central Kitsap and
Photos by Chris Tucker (top) and Peter O’Cain (below)
Top: Responders look at the aftermath of an explosion at a Motel 6 on Kitsap Way Aug. 18. Below: Police cordon off Kitsap Way as a large plum of smoke rises more than 100 feet in the air. Navy Fire responded to the scene. After the explosion, hundreds of people lined the streets near the motel to watch firefighters deal with the night time destruction. Among them was Johnathan Davis, who lives near the motel on Charleston Avenue. Davis said he was cooking hamburger around 8 p.m. when the explosion happened “Boom! I thought, ‘Damn. Earthquake!” Davis said. “I was jumping.” He ran outside and toward the motel and saw a big fire, he said. “The car wash is gone,” he said. SEE EXPLOSION, A7
The Bremerton Patriot: Top local stories, every Friday in print. Breaking news daily on BremertonPatriot.com and on Facebook