23 Injured in Explosion at Florida Mall (+Video)
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - At least 23 people were injured after an explosion at a strip mall in South Florida on Saturday.
The official, Jason Nunemaker, the chief administrative officer for the city of Plantation, Fla., said on Saturday night that everyone had been accounted for and that one trauma patient was upgraded to stable condition.
He toured the site — known as the Market on University — multiple times and said the debris field and shrapnel was reminiscent of damage from a hurricane. Officials said they were exploring a gas leak as the possible cause of the blast, which occurred around 11:30 a.m. in the Broward County city, which is about 30 miles north of Miami, NYTimes reported.
“It’s a miracle,” Mr. Nunemaker said. “We were very fortunate that we didn’t experience something much worse. I was relieved that it wasn’t more serious with regard to casualties.”
Social media posts showed widespread damage to the retail center, which is home to an L.A. Fitness gym and several restaurants.
Joel Gordon, the deputy chief of the Plantation Fire Department, said the cause of the explosion had not been confirmed and Cherie Jacobs, a spokeswoman for Teco Peoples Gas, said the company was working with fire officials to investigate.
The company serves seven or eight customers in the strip mall, Ms. Jacobs said, but she didn’t know whether it served the specific site where the explosion took place.
Arson and explosives investigators from the Miami division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were on the scene on Saturday afternoon, the bureau said on Twitter.
